PhoneSat 2.4, NASA's latest small satellite, has called home.  The satellite is part of a program to verify and leverage the use of smartphone technology for incorporation into low-cost, rapid turnaround missions.

Weighing in at around 2.2 pounds, the 10 centimeter cube PhoneSat uses an off-the-shelf Samsung Nexus S smartphone running the Google (News - Alert) Android operating system.    The phone provides many of the functions a satellite needs for operations in a compact package, including computation, memory, interfaces for communications, navigation and power. 

The "1U" PhoneSat 2.4 is the first of its line to incorporate a two-way S-band radio, enabling operators to communicate with the satellite from the ground.  Data from the satellite's subsystems, including the smartphone, the power system and orientation control system are being downlinked over amateur radio at a frequency of 437.425MHz.  The satellite will also test an orientation system.

NASA sent up its first PhoneSat in April for a one week demonstration mission.  Launched last month from Wallops Island, VA onboard an Orbital Sciences (News - Alert) Corporation Minotaur I rocket, Version 2.4 is expected to stay in orbit for up to a year, collecting data on how well commercial components perform in space.

PhoneSat model 2.5 is scheduled to be launched in February onboard a SpaceX (News - Alert) commercial cargo run to the International Space Station (ISS).  It will be used to continue to test two-way radio and orientation systems towards a launch of eight slightly larger cubesats schedule for launch from Kauai, Hawaii in 2014. The Edison Demonstration of Smallsat Networks (EDSN) will use eight identical 1.5 unit cube sats that are 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters by 15 centimeters in size and weighing in at 5.5 pounds each.

EDSN will demonstrate the ability of using a number of small CubeSats flying in formation to study the space environment and satellite-to-satellite communications techniques. Each EDSN satellite will have a Samsung (News - Alert) Nexus S smartphone for satellite command and data handling, with a scientific instrument added as a payload on each spacecraft.

The EDSN CubeSats will work together as a swarm, each making instrument readings and transmitting data to the others.  Any one satellite can transmit all of the collected data to a ground station, demonstrating the ability for larger groups of smaller satellites to affordably monitor Earth's climate, space weather, and other large global factors.

By cell phone standards, the Nexus S is very old, having been introduced into the market in December 2010. It is so old that Google announced in late 2012 it would not support Android (News - Alert) 4.2 on the device.  But for a conservative NASA, the Android smartphone is more than powerful enough and "well proven."