Android Question When does GPS fail?

[Mark Read]

A strange question to ask but here it is: At what altitude will the gps system no longer work? My idea is to send a balloon into space with a smartphone. I have a feeling it will only fail if the phone freezes. What do the experts say?

Many thanks
Mark

 

[Erel]

Interesting question...

How will you interact with the phone? I guess that you will lose the connection before the GPS fails.

 

[John D.]

This is not an authoritative answer, but the GPS receiver should work without regard to altitude. As far as temperature goes, it's hard to say. The battery might be affected by temperature more than anything else, but at extremely low temperature, only testing will tell.

http://www.androidpit.com/cold-smartphones

 

[Mark Read]

I won't actually interact with the phone. I want to send the gps info to a server running sql. If the data connection is lost, I will save the data on a SD card and hope that I get the phone back when it plummets back to earth!

B4A goes into space!!

 

[Erel]

I expect the data connectivity to be the first to break. Then comes the challenging step which is to find the device once it returns...

 

[John D.]

If the phone lands in an area where it can establish a connection, you can get it to report in with its exact location, if it still works.

 

[Erel]

You can also send SMS messages with the location. SMS doesn't depend on a data connection.

 

[Mark Read]

Having read a bit in internet about this, as far as I can find:

Standard GPS (not military grade) should work up to about 8 km, then it dies but comes back again when it is lower than 8 km. This should help finding the thing again.

@Erel, thanks for the thought. SMS would also be an option but it would have to be an MMS as I will activate the camera as well.

 

[Erel]

Use SMS to send the location, not the images. MMS also requires data connection.