14 DAY TRIAL // Mountain View-based Internet giant Google released a few weeks ago the latest flavor of it mobile operating system, namely Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which already arrived on the market packed in the new Nexus S by Samsung, and which already managed to climb higher than any other OS flavor before.
To be more precise, Google engineers came up with a number of seven payloads, each packing a Nexus S, and sent them into the outer space.
The main idea behind the project was to collect data about Nexus S' sensors, such as GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer.
At the same time, the move allowed these Google engineers the possibility to capture some pretty impressive imagery and videos of Earth. The first video embedded at the bottom of this article shows one of these clips.
The initiative was based on the capabilities that Nexus S comes to the market with, and on the development environment offered by Gingerbread, which provided the support for building the necessary applications.
“We then worked with UCSC student Greg Klein to prepare each of the payloads, which were housed in foam coolers. We secured a nylon load line to the cooler and attached to it a radar reflector, a parachute, and finally, a weather balloon,” Google notes in a post on its Google Mobile Blog.
They put an APRS transmitter attached to a GPS in each payload, one that would work at high altitudes, along with the needed batteries to keep it powered up. The rest of the content of each payload was different, ranging from digital cameras to video cameras mounted at various angles.
Of course, there are also the applications that Nexus S was loaded with, including Google Maps for Mobile 5.0, Google Sky Map, Latitude, and more.
One of the observations of this project was that the Nexus S packs a GPS receiver that would work at altitudes of about 60,000 ft. As soon as the balloon descended, the GPS started working again. One other interesting finding would be the fact that Nexus S could withstand temperatures of -50˚C.
Some other data collected would include: Maximum Speed: 139 mph Maximum Altitude: 107,375 ft (over 20 miles, over 30 km) Maximum Ascent Rate: 5.44 m/s Average Flight Duration: 2 hours, 40 minutes Average Descent Time: 34 minutes
Other initiatives would also come to Android in the future, the team notes. In the meantime, take a look at the two videos below to learn more on this project.