The Gr8t Txt Rip Off

By Rita Jorge

The cost of text messaging probably isn’t the first thing on your mind when you’re engaging in full-on text flirtation with the cute guy you met last Friday. But as it turns out, you could have been texting some charming alien from outer space for a quarter of the price.

According to Dr Nigel Bannister from the University of Leicester, downloading data from the Hubble Space Telescope is four times cheaper than texting between mobiles, cute guy included. Leaving aside costs related to ground stations and personnel (small change, apparently) a megabyte of data from outer space costs NASA £8.85 (US $17.35), as opposed to the £374.49 ($US 734.00) that it will cost you for the same megabyte transfer by SMS.

Of course, to exchange a full megabyte by mobile phone you would have to text your whole life story, full GSCE results and favourite quotes from friends, given that your average text message only takes about 140 bytes. And as to why somebody would use NASA’s equipment to inform mums and workmates that they’ve “just got off the bus”, nobody really seems to know.

Luckily for us, space researchers’ time is being spent on meaningful issues such as these, instead of the usual boring “is-there-life-on-Mars” dilemmas. Presumably it won't be long before scientists will be able to tell us how much it would cost to boil an egg on the Hubble and how many Martians would it take to change a light bulb.

Some more loony space stories from the Null: