[time-nuts] OT - but of interest?

[Chris Albertson]

On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 9:40 AM, Gregory Muir <engineering at mt.net> wrote:

> I'm curious if they ever have any problem with earth-based commercial component
> outgassing clouding the camera optics.

I went to a lecture on the idea of putting a cell phone like object in
orbit.  The idea was that it should have a cost and size about like a
phone.   This is very different from a pico-sat (a 4 inch cube)
because the pico sat costs $100,000 or more and the phone is under
$500   The idea is that $500 satellites you don't have to care about
failures.  The plan was to place maybe 100,000 devices in orbit and as
they fail just launch another 1,000 or so at a time.  The proposal was
to launch them from a rocket carried under an aircraft.

The goal was an un-jamable world wide data network.  The phones would
self-organize into a mesh network.   But no one is going to do this.
But still the question lives on:  "What could you do with a iPhone in
orbit?"   One idea was diagnostics.  A big spacecraft like a space
station of crew capsule headed to mars might toss a few outside so
they could get photos of the exterior if they suspected a problem or
if the phone is cheap just to get  snapshot.  But I'd bet a bunch
they'd use a $100K pico sat for that.
--

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California