HTC Nexus One and NASA going to the space together in 2013

Have you been to space before? Yeah, neither have I. But you know who’s about to? Your phone.

Well, I guess that’s only if you own the Nexus One – the first Nexus phone, which was brought out by Google and HTC quite some time ago. Well, with the new ‘PhoneSat Program’ NASA are focused on building small, low-cost and easy-to-build “nano-satellites.” Easy enough, kind of, not. NASA and HTC will launch the device into space in 2013 as a part of the new project.

NASA have chosen to go with the Nexus One after years of rigorous testing. I guess you’d need that if you’re being sent into space. On HTC’s blog post on the matter they tell us a bit about what the poor ol’ Nexus One went through -

from thermal-vacuum chambers, extreme vibration tests, to high-altitude balloon flights, and more. Back in 2010, a Nexus One was attached to a rocket and shot to the edge of space – and the phone’s camera recorded the entire trip.

Here’s the video they’re talking about:

Because today’s smartphones supposedly have almost everything that a satellite would need in them we’ve had this sci-fi dream become a reality. Apparently, even the Nexus One, which is several years old, has 100 times more processing power than the average satellite orbiting overhead today. Wow.

In perfect fashion, HTC left us with a little teaser for what could be the future of smartphones and space. Let’s hope NASA and HTC have a fruitful and long-lasting relationship, we could start seeing some really cool possibilities.

Given how far technology has come since the Nexus One, it will be amazing to see what NASA engineers do with today’s technology. Perhaps we’ll see the HTC One X+ in the next spaceship bound for Jupiter?

What would you like to see in the future of smartphones and space?

Source: HTC
Via: Slashgear