NASA smartphone goes 'cosmopolitan'

NASA said that three smartphones they put on orbit with a low-cost test satellite and are operating very well.

Three HTC Nexus One smartphones from Google, placed in a 4-inch metal box and named PhoneSats traveled around the Earth at a height of 241km.

Running the Android operating system, the main task of these three PhoneSats is to take photos of the Earth and send radio messages periodically. The purpose of this is to test the capabilities of smartphones and see if they can become 'brains' of future satellites.

Can smartphones take on the role of the "brain" of satellites?

These three phones were put on orbit by Orbital Science's Antares missile from the center of the flight to Wallops, Virginia, USA.

'An amateur radio operator told NASA they had received radio signals from satellites,' said NASA spokesman Ruth Marlaire.

The 'travel' of these 3 smartphones will not last long. When returning to Earth's atmosphere after 2 more weeks, these 3 PhoneSats will be ablaze.