Cheers to them!
Anyone who contributes to LOHAN deserves a pint!
We're sure readers will offer the traditional El Reg welcome today to Rock Seven, which has climbed aboard the British space programme by providing an Iridium satellite comms capability for our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) mission. Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic The company's newly …
I was honestly expecting the cost of that device to be exorbitant but the website suggest not. Hell, you can barely get GSM/SMS connectivity in an embedded device for the prices they charge.
£159 for the device. £8/month subscription (no annual contract!). 12p per credit (down to 4p in bulk). That's seriously competitive with SMS devices. Hell, I might even buy one to add onto my in-car Raspberry Pi project. How does the messaging work, though? I assume you need two devices to send messages to each other, but even so - that's still quite good.
Might have to rock up to Brentwood next time I'm there and see the kit for myself if that's possible.
...of this is to send back live pictures. I mean, forget trivial stuff like GPS or system status telemetry --- 340 bytes is big enough for a 52x52 monochrome bitmap, or if you really want to push the boat out, 36x36 at 2bpp or 18x18 at 4bpp. And that's without compression, too.
Transmit Current (average) 190mA
Transmit Current (peak) 1.5A
Might be too expensive to send a message every ten seconds...
On the other hand, only 30g module (the board with the power supply and antenna must be heavier by still) is impressive for a two-way space communication gadget!