As someone fascinated by aerospace, I was especially interested in this Lumia 800-related story, about how scientists from the University of Southampton shot the device into the stratosphere as a tool to help create balloon flight trajectory prediction software that can then be used to guide other missions, like weather balloons. A small, intelligent, durable mobile computer was needed and it seems the Windows Phone-powered Lumia 800 fit the bill nicely.

From the Nokia Conversations piece:

The ASTRA project (Atmospheric Science Through Robotic Aircraft) investigates new technologies for making low cost observations of the parameters of the atmosphere. Stephen Johnston and András Sóbester from the ASTRA project chose the Nokia Lumia 800 to be the “nerve centre” of the ASTRA 10 series of flights, which took place in conjunction with the MetOffice.  “We knew the Lumia was very robust. With other phones we’ve had to include an extra battery and a heater. We didn’t need to do that with the Lumia – it was the best.”

Balloon-based platforms need to know their location (GPS), communicate this information back to the ground crew so that they can follow and then retrieve the balloon, log data by recording the measurements taken by the instruments on board – and possibly take photographs. They also need to be light enough to ascend to heights of 32 km above the earth, and robust enough to survive in temperatures of -70C, with atmospheric pressure a thousand times lower than on the ground....

...On its flight the Lumia reached altitudes of 105,000 feet, and survived temperatures of -61C, remaining airborne for 2 hours and 22 minutes as it flew over South Wales and finally landed in Cornwall. “The Lumia still had data connectivity at 8km above the earth, it’s definitely got a good aerial in there,” Sóbester says. Previous devices only maintained data connectivity up to 5km.

Along the way the Lumia recorded 2GB of imagery... Without adapting any of the Lumia hardware, the ASTRA team developed an app to record GPS co-ordinates, acceleration and to take images.

Here's the Lumia 800 in its pod, running the custom app:

And here's the arrangement, ready to fly:

Fascinating stuff, would love to see more uses of smartphone tech in aerospace in the future. See the ASTRA project for more information.