NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications experiment has successfully transmitted a streaming video of an ultra-high definition from 31 million km away, which is an important step in advancing optical communications for future human missions beyond Earth's orbit.
Launched with the Psyche mission, this laser communications demonstration showed capability to communicate deep-space data at rates 10 to 100 times greater than current RF systems.
A 15 second test video featuring Taters, an orange and white tabby cat, was sent via a flight laser transceiver and downloaded back to earth.
Laser communications demo will continue transmitting high-data-rate signals that are meant to pave way for future human Mars missions.
The Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory of Caltech received the encoded near-infrared signal and forwarded it to the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) located in Southern California.
Laser technology has brought a revolution in space communication increasing the data rates by 10-100 times compared to traditional radio waves.
In 101 seconds, the ultra-HD video was sent at a maximum bit rate of 267 megabits per second, to Earth. It was then sent over the internet to JPL, which was slower than the deep space signal.
HD video of an outer space cat for the first time
Nasa cat video –The video was shared by the US Space Agency on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The first ultra HD video was streamed from far space via laser,” it said. Moreover, Taters, a tabby cat was the cat that features in this video.” This has been dubbed ‘the next giant leap: sending humans to Mars’.
We just streamed the first ultra-HD video brought to you via laser from deep space. And it’s a video of Taters, a tabby cat.
— NASA (@NASA) December 19, 2023
This test will pave the way for high-data-rate communications in support of the next giant leap: sending humans to Mars. https://t.co/tf2hWxaHWO pic.twitter.com/c1FwybYsxA
NASA’s technology demonstration aims at opening the way for deep space, high-data-rate communications, which it calls a giant leap in mission to Mars.
This is one example of how cats have been a part of our history –a NASA video clip showing Tabby, a JPL employee's pet chasing a laser light. It is an achievement in NASA’s technology demonstration that targets future human missions to Mars.
In its $1.2 billion Psyche asteroid probe, NASA has included an ultra HD video of an orange cat to demonstrate its commitment to optical communications.
A cat video sheds light on space communication, the @NASAArtemis II crew continues their training, and a new view of the @NASA_Orion #Artemis I splashdown.
— NASA (@NASA) December 23, 2023
All this and more in another busy week at NASA. For more space in your inbox: https://t.co/MyG37QzGhO pic.twitter.com/7NyeVTZpO1
The video was transmitted on December 11 with a maximum bit rate of 267 Mbps and took two minutes and 10 seconds to reach Earth. Caltech’s Palomar Observatory downloaded it after which it was played in real-time at JPL.
NASA believes that there are still chances for the improvement of optical communication technologies for upcoming interplanetary missions. –(IVNTV)