 From VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report. Smartphones are small and easy to carry, so they are always ready when we need them. People use them to get road directions, to take pictures, or to call friends. But we easily forget the power of smartphone microprocessors. Scientists with NASA, the American Space Agency, have not. In April, NASA sent three smartphones into space to operate as low-cost satellites. They were launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in the state of Virginia. The launch was the first test flight of the privately built Antares rocket. Space Agency officials gave names to the three phone sats, as they are called. The names are Alexander, Graham, and Bell. They are the inventor of the telephone. All three phone sats looked like small cubes or boxes. Each one was about the size of a drinking cup, and weighed a little more than one kilogram. At the heart of each was a Google HTC Nexus One phone. The microprocessor inside the phone serves as the brain of the mini-satellite. Jim Cockrell works for NASA in California. He says the phone sats were an experiment to find out if a cell phone can serve as the avionics for a satellite. NASA says the phone sats operated for almost a week. They collected pictures of the Earth and sent messages to ground stations. The agency says smartphones have more than 100 times the computing power of an average satellite. Jim Cockrell notes that they also have high-resolution cameras and global positioning system receivers. So, the next time you pick up a smartphone, think about the work of the phone sats Alexander, Graham, and Bell. For VOA Learning English, I'm Mario Ritter.