Re:NASA to use consumer Android smartphones in new satellites
by jcromartie on Monday August 27, 2012 @09:08AM
(#4438595)
What else would they use? It seems pretty obvious to go with Android.
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Re:NASA to use consumer Android smartphones in new satellites
by roedog on Monday August 27, 2012 @12:00PM
(#4439400)
NASA flies a lot with VxWorks. They could have ported it to the nexus.
Re:NASA to use consumer Android smartphones in new satellites
by ConstantineXVI on Monday August 27, 2012 @12:43PM
(#4439608)
At which point the satellites can no longer be open source. Perhaps more importantly, Android already runs on the Nexus S; VxWorks doesn't. It defeats the purpose of using commodity hardware if you start over from scratch on the software running it.
Re:NASA to use consumer Android smartphones in new satellites
by roedog on Monday August 27, 2012 @02:21PM
(#4440067)
I agree VxWorks would require additional porting effort. I also think that Android was the right choice for this mission.
I'm not sure I agree with the implied high priority placed on open source. The relative development costs of android, real-time linux, or even a commerical RTOS are noise in the flight software development budget. Reducing the cost is a more important driver to making space more accessible.
The big benefit, if these android cube sats fly successfully, would be to retire a lot of risks - thus opening the door for future programs to fly with android.