For example, could an Astronaut text somebody on Earth from the spaceship he or she is in?
Just wondering..thanks!
Just wondering..thanks!
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While a cell tower can transmit pretty far away, the range is also limited by the transmitting power of the phone.
"Some technologies, such as GSM, normally have a fixed maximum range of 35 kilometres (22 mi), which is imposed by technical limitations. CDMA and IDEN have no built-in limit, but the limiting factor is the ability of a low-powered personal cell phone to transmit back to the mast. As a rough guide, based on a tall mast and flat terrain, it is possible to get between 50 to 70 km (30–45 miles)"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_site#R…
Even if the astronaut is orbiting within range of a cell tower, it is likely that he would pass the range of the cell tower before the phone could establish a connection or send a whole message given that the velocity needed to stay in orbit is 7,814 m/s. http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/getti…
Conclusion: it can't be done.
Now if you put a cell phone in near space with a weather balloon, it is quite possible that it would be within working range. In fact you could probably use a cheap cell phone in conjunction with a cheap arduino and a high end camera to control your little airship and take spy photos or drop packets all for less than $500 with the camera being the most expensive.
And the military has to spend a billion on a spy plan. Muahahahahaha!
"Some technologies, such as GSM, normally have a fixed maximum range of 35 kilometres (22 mi), which is imposed by technical limitations. CDMA and IDEN have no built-in limit, but the limiting factor is the ability of a low-powered personal cell phone to transmit back to the mast. As a rough guide, based on a tall mast and flat terrain, it is possible to get between 50 to 70 km (30–45 miles)"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_site#R…
Even if the astronaut is orbiting within range of a cell tower, it is likely that he would pass the range of the cell tower before the phone could establish a connection or send a whole message given that the velocity needed to stay in orbit is 7,814 m/s. http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/getti…
Conclusion: it can't be done.
Now if you put a cell phone in near space with a weather balloon, it is quite possible that it would be within working range. In fact you could probably use a cheap cell phone in conjunction with a cheap arduino and a high end camera to control your little airship and take spy photos or drop packets all for less than $500 with the camera being the most expensive.
And the military has to spend a billion on a spy plan. Muahahahahaha!
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no there is no cell service in outer space...but yes, I'm pretty sure that astronauts could (if they wanted to and NASA allowed them to) text from outer space, but they wouldn't be using the same infrastructure that we use to make cell phone calls/texts, they would be using their own equipment to connect to the "grid".
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No. Cell service, by definition, uses cells on the surface of the Earth determined by the transmission towers we see all over the landscape.
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I don't think so, but that's because the nearest cell tower would be more than 10 miles away. No reception. I don't think the relay satellites are listening for local cell signals.
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No, well not unless there was a cell station in the shuttle or if there were space cell towers all over the universe aliens have been hiding from us.
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if you had a satelite phone and were below the satelites and in there field maybe above them nill