See the article here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12253228

If they wanted full control over the device, wouldn't they have been better off choosing a maemo device? The n900 would have fit the bill better, surely?

hi

did you read the whole article ? you have the answers right there...

i think java has a key role here....and of course "inexpensive, off-the-shelf electronics" And "Critical to the whole endeavour is the phone's operating system.

Android is open source software which means SSTL's engineers can modify it to adapt the phone's functions."

That implies scientists research things other than their respective fields. Most of them are just as narrowly focused on what they care about, as every other human being.

Maemo is an obscure barely known device OS. Android OS isn't. The N900 is a great phone, but it's also limited in quite a few ways.

Plus, they aren't going for full control of the phone. They just want to write an app on it to control their satelite remotely to see if it's a feasible cost cutting approach - take smartphones up instead of custom-built electronics.

Well, they do want to modify the OS, and the relevant parts are probably open source on both, but again, Maemo 5 is obscure, Android is popularly known. Chances are, they never heard of Maemo.

No doubt this is forward thinking research. It makes as much sense to send up the dead ended Maemo5 OS device as it would to send up one running on DOS 2.1. Both allow for full control of the device but neither is going to be available on any future devices.

*cough*
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=68863

Although nobody replied to mine Could a mod please merge my thread with this one? Thanks!

imo Maemo5 and the N900 would be much too erratic for this type of mission. once it's up there you can't hard reset or flash the handset lol! Also, depending on the communication channels, it's possibly better written or mature in Android/Java. Ofcourse Android phones also have a magnetometer which is missing on the N900 - do they still work far out in space? I can imagine if it does work it could be part of the feedback for the satellite/system stabilizing itself. They would also take into account RAM/memory usage and power/battery issues.

My favorite part of the article is:
I love the idea of writing applications for smart phones in space! imagine having a space Qt SDK

If they used n900 i would like to see their face when while they're controlling their satellites hildon-desktop suddenly goes crazy

If they were using a standard Linux platform, I'd expect there to not be any GUI whatsoever on the device itself. From the looks of things I'll be amazed if they don't have any glitches, regardless of what they run, considering that off-the-shelf hardware generally isn't rad-hard or redundant.

you are first afraid of reflashing and this is a good thing?

god dam it dont they know with no real multi-tasking if they deploy the landing gears the engine will get suspended =/

I think it's a great thing. i'll be happy to update my "shoot a lazer at my neighbours fancy new car and drive into the sun to incinerate all evidence" application without any fear! Flashing was in regards to the question if they had used the N900, that's obviously not the case.