iPhone 4, Samsung Nexus S on Space Shuttle Atlantis' Final Mission

A few days ago NASA bid adieu to its 30 year long, space shuttle mission, with the launch of the space shuttle, Atlantis. Along with the four member crew, Atlantis had some special guests onboard. Reports suggest that the Atlantis crew carried with them, along with the other equipments; two Samsung Nexus S smartphones and an iPhone 4.

Simply out of this world, quite literally!

According to reports, the smartphones will aid the crew onboard with several experiments they routinely carry out. Both the Nexus S and the iPhone 4 will be connected to the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, and Experimental Satellites, also known by the acronym SPHERES. With the smartphones doing the routine experiments, the crew members will spend a lot of time with  them.

While the Nexus S smartphones would have been placed small spheres propelled by thrusters, completely ruling out the need of manual operations, the iPhone 4 will be used to run an app called ‘Space Lab’. Using the app, the crew onboard will be able to carry out numerous experiments with  the phones’ cameras, gyroscopes, and some other sensors, in addition to checking if the computer memory would suffer any repercussions owing to space radiation.