PhoneSat 1.0

PhoneSat 1.0 Graham [NASA]

PhoneSat 1.0 Bell [NASA]

PhoneSat 1.0 is a technology demonstration mission consisting of three 1U CubeSats intended to prove that a smartphone can be used to perform many of the functions required of a spacecraft bus.

The satellite is built around the Nexus smartphone which will be running the Android operating system and will be enclosed in a standard 1U cubesat structure. The main function of the phone is to act as the Onboard Computer, but the mission will also utilize the phone’s SD card for data storage, 5 MP camera for Earth Observation, and 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis magnetometer for attitude determination.

The HTC Nexus One acts as the spacecraft onboard computer. Sensors determine the orientation of the spacecraft while the smartphone's camera can be used for Earth observations. Commercial-off-the-shelf parts include a watchdog circuit that monitors the systems and reboots the phone if it stops sending radio signals. The two satellites launched were named Graham and Bell.

Bell also had an independent Iridium payload called TechedSat 2 on board. The Iridium transceiver has its own mission and is not part of PhoneSat mission. The goal of the Iridium transceiver is send packets to the Iridium constellation and receive them on ground via email.

With a short lifetime of only about one week, the satellites have no solar cells and operate on battery only.

Two satellites were launched as a secondary payload on the maiden flight of the Antares-110 launch vehicle in 2013.