Testing Mobile Phones For Controlling Space Missions 119
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers in the UK are sending an Android handset into space in order to test whether mobile phone chipsets are robust enough to be be used as the basis for controlling future space missions — greatly reducing the cost and weight of spacecraft electronics. 'Once in space, the phone will be bombarded by cosmic and solar radiation, and experience temperatures that veer between extreme heat and cold. A computer on the ground will check whether the phone is able to operate normally in orbit, and if no problems are found the phone will be used to perform tasks usually carried out by the satellite's main avionics computer.'"
Sure, NASA allows them on their flights... (Score:3, Insightful)
So, when can "us mortals" start using cell phones on airplanes?
Re:Sure, NASA allows them on their flights... (Score:5, Insightful)
With the status quo, I look at you when we are boarding and presume you are an idiot.
When phones are allowed on planes, after a two hour flight with you chatting away with any moron in your phone book that will listen to you I will know beyond a shadow of a doubt you are an idiot, and be able to list a few dozen reasons why.
Let's keep the mystery going.