Sending stuff into space requires it be lightweight and functional. And people seem to really like their lightweight, functional iPhones. But if we just sent an iPhone to Pluto, it wouldn't be able to do stuff. It hasn't the range or survivability. On the other hand, using the DSN to transmit data to a New Horizons-sized PDA isn't feasible either. But why am I making these silly comparisons?

Dr. Henry Throop of SWRI started it. He made an interesting comparison of the iPhone versus the New Horizons mission to Pluto, as part of his PPT on "The New Horizons Geometry Visualizer: Planning the Encounter with Pluto" at the IDL User Group (Oct 16 08). To this I added some cost figures. Here we go.

	New Horizons	iPhone
Camera	1 MP	2 MP
Storage	16GB	16GB
Network	DSN	3G
Battery	88 years (Plutonium-238)	4 hour
(to this I'll add...)
Development Cost	$470 million	$150 million
Quantity	1	over 12 million
'Launch' Cost	$205 million	$3.8 billion
Cash Profit	0	$810 million
Lifetime	9 years	2 years (est.)
Distance traveling	5 billion km	10 million km (max)

There are many lessons we can take from this. Depending on your spin, one take could be that it's a lot easier to make a profit selling to Earthlings than Plutonians. Another view is that, if you need something to travel far and last a long time, NASA's the place to ask.

New Horizons figures based on a space.com figure of $675 million total mission cost, that includes the $205 million launch cost. Since missions create flight spares to swap during testing as needed, in theory we could just boost a flight spare also. That would give us 2 New Explorers for just the cost of an additional $205 million launch. That's like getting a 2/3rds discount on the 2nd spacecraft-- a bargain!

iPhone costs are estimated from a $150 development figure reported in Wired magazine. 'Launch' is based on having to manufacture the 12 million units sold in 2008, with cost-per-unit based on Apple making a reported $80 profit per $400 unit sold. iPhone lifetime is based on 2 year estimate for the battery, and also matches the typical tech turnover cycles for similar consumer products.

My listed maximum iPhone distance is based on ownership by an airline pilot who flies around the world (40K laps) five times a week every other week and gets a 2 week winter break. So that's a seriously upper limit.

Even I'm not entirely sure the point of today's exercise. But I do note, with some irony, that while I'm able to use and enjoy data from New Horizons, I still don't have the spare cash to get an iPhone.

Alex, the daytime astronomer