Android phones blast off in last space shuttle flight

Apple's iPhones will not be the only smartphones aboard the last flight of the space shuttle "Atlantis" after all: two Nexus S phones running Google's Android OS will be along for the ride too. Tech site CNET reported on Friday that the Nexus S phones will enhance the functions of three floating satellites on the International Space Station. While the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) take commands from a computer aboard the ISS, the Nexus S phones will allow the ground crew to pilot them via remote control more effectively. "The goal is to find out how we can use telerobotics to increase the efficiency of human explorers and ground controllers," CNET quoted DW Wheeler of the Intelligent Robotics Group at the National Aeronautics Space Administration's Ames Research Center as saying. CNET also quoted Wheeler as saying the initial experiments to install the phones on the SPHERES may take place in September or October. Developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Space Systems Laboratory, the SPHERES had been used aboard the ISS since 2006. "Atlantis" is to blast off Friday night (Manila time) for the last flight of the shuttle program. The CNET report said the SPHERES may be used to perform inspections and checking inventory and supplies aboard the ISS. Such automated tasks would potentially give the ISS' human crew more time for other work. Last June, Odyssey Space Research disclosed two iPhone 4 smartphones will be on board "Atlantis" to run the “SpaceLab for iOS" app, which will be used on the ISS to conduct space research. Odyssey said that four experiments are planned to be conducted onboard the ISS. Each allows a crewmember to conduct the experiments without supplementary paper procedures:

• Limb Tracker, a navigation experiment which involves taking photographs of the Earth and matching an arc to the horizon through manipulation of an overlay. This performs the function roughly equivalent to a “manual" horizon sensor.
• Sensor Cal (sensor calibration), an experiment that uses a series of photos of a reference image, combined with propagated information using three-axis gyro and accelerometer measurements to calibrate the gyros and the accelerometers. This will improve the knowledge and accuracy of subsequent measurements.
• State Acq (State Acquisition), a navigation experiment uses a series of photos of a reference image and of the Earth, combined with information from the three-axis gyro and accelerometer, to estimate the position of the spacecraft (latitude and longitude). The position estimation is generated by manipulating and matching a wireframe overlay of the Earth’s coastlines to the acquired Earth image(s).
• LFI (Lifecycle Flight Instrumentation), an experiment that will characterize the effects of radiation on the device by monitoring certain areas of memory for Single Bit Upsets - an unintended change in value of a memory location caused by exposure to radiation.

“Both iPhone 4’s will remain on the ISS for several months where the experiments will be conducted by the crew and data acquired and stored on the devices," Odyssey said. When the experiments are completed, the two iPhones will be returned to Earth, with the first opportunity to return being aboard a Russian Soyuz vehicle, in the fall of 2011. Odyssey said flight data from the experiments are expected to be collected, analyzed, and then shared via its app on the App Store. In the meantime, it said its app is available for download on the App Store so ground-based users can get a sense of experience and tasks to be performed by crew members on the ISS. “Some features are simulated to account for the presence of gravity," it said. — TJD, GMA News