
Android In Spaaaace - bjonathan
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/12/android-in-spaaaace.html
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davidw
Neat, but there's something cooler about people with more limited means
sending up balloons rather than a huge company, which probably has the means
to build actual spaceships. It comes across as looking like a bit more of a
publicity stunt than anything else. Here's one way it could be improved: let
high school students submit ideas for experiments using the phones, with
winning teams getting phones for the experiment, plus phones for themselves.

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kylec

        It comes across as looking like a bit more of a
        publicity stunt than anything else
    

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what this was

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davidw
I think they work better when they're not _quite_ so blatant.

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dmix
Authenticity is the marketers holy grail.

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aristus
Authenticity is key. Once you figure out how to fake that, you're golden.

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nl
_Google Will Land On The Moon Before It Beats Facebook, Says Gmail Inventor
Paul Buchheit_

[http://www.businessinsider.com/google-will-land-on-the-
moon-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/google-will-land-on-the-moon-before-
it-beats-facebook-says-gmail-inventor-paul-buchheit-2010-12)

Obviously, plans are already in motion...

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JonnieCache
When the balloon popped I physically clutched the desk for support, quite
involuntarily.

I think it must be the rapid flipping of the ground/sky reference points in
these weather balloon spaceflight videos that gives me such powerful vertigo.

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stratomorph
>In tracking the sensors on each of the phones, we observed that the GPS in
Nexus S could function up to altitudes of about 60,000 ft. and would actually
start working again on the balloon’s descent. ... Maximum Speed: 139 mph

The unit shut itself off passing 600 at low speed, which is more restrictive
than required. The rule is receivers that work above 60,000ft _and_ 1000kt
require export licenses as munitions
(<http://www.armscontrol.org/documents/mtcr>), but there's no reason a phone's
civilian-grade (unrestricted) receiver shouldn't work up high at that low
forward speed. I suppose the most conservative possible interpretation keeps
companies safe.

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3pt14159
The lens is warping the view of the earth to make it appear that they are
higher up than they actually are. Still really cool, but I was ultra-impressed
in the beginning portion of the video.

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Tichy
I don't think that Android hat a parachute attached. Poor little green thing.

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dhughes
I wonder what goat herder in Mongolia got beaned on the head with it.

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graupel
Space begins at 62 miles up - that's 327,680 feet.

While these balloons do go up high enough that it might look like they're in
space (black sky and all) - at 110,000', they're simply not.

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stratomorph
It's a bit misleading to flatly cite the 100km Karman line as if there was no
room to debate "where does space begin?" The boundary could be lower: NASA
gives out astronaut wings at 50 miles (264000 feet). Or maybe it should be
higher: Orbits decay pretty quickly under atmospheric drag at that altitude,
and drag is a factor even at ISS altitude, requiring a bit of fuel now and
again to replace energy lost to drag. The point at which reasonable flying
speed equals orbital speed (~100 km) is just one demarcation, chosen by
convention from many possibilities.

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graupel
All very good points - thanks for the info - lots to think about.

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gmichnikov
"...we observed that the GPS in Nexus S could function up to altitudes of
about 60,000 ft..."

Has anyone tried using a phone's GPS on an airplane with any success?

