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A laser communications experiment flying on NASA’s Psyche mission sent video to Earth from about 19 million miles (31 million kilometers) away, and the short clip features a cat named Taters. NASA broadcast video from deep space using laser for the first time.
In the ultra-high-definition video, a cheerful orange tabby cat chases the elusive red dot from a laser pointer as it moves across the couch.
The cat video was transmitted to Earth from a flight laser transceiver as part of the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment (DSOC). As humans push the boundaries of space exploration by going to places like Mars, the technology could one day be used to quickly transmit data, images and video.
The 15-second video was encoded with a near-infrared laser and beamed from the Psyche spacecraft to the Hale Telescope at the California Institute of Technology’s Palomar Observatory. The video was downloaded to the observatory on December 11, and each frame was streamed live at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The distance between the Psyche spacecraft and Hale at the time of transmission was 80 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. It took just 101 seconds for the laser to reach each Earth.
The laser can send data at 10 to 100 times the speed of traditional radio wave systems that NASA uses on other missions. The tech demo is designed to be NASA’s furthest experiment in high-bandwidth laser communications, testing sending and receiving data to Earth using an invisible near-infrared laser.
“This achievement underscores our commitment to advancing optical communications as a key element in meeting our future data transmission needs,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said in a statement. “Increasing our bandwidth is crucial to achieving our future exploration and science goals, and we look forward to the continued advancement of this technology and the transformation of how we communicate during future interplanetary missions.”
Laser communication in deep space
The Psyche mission, launched in mid-October, is currently on track to capture humanity’s first look at a metal asteroid between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Over the next six years, the spacecraft will travel approximately 2.2 billion miles (3.6 billion kilometers) to reach its namesake destination, located on the outer reaches of the main asteroid belt.
However, the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment carries out its own mission for the first two years of the journey.
“One goal is to demonstrate the ability to transmit broadband video across millions of miles. Nothing on Psyche produces video data, so they typically send randomly generated packets of test data,” Bill Klipstein, DSOC project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement.
“But to make this important event even more memorable, we decided to work with designers at JPL to create a fun video that captures the essence of the demo as part of the Psyche mission.”
‘Everybody loves Taters’
The DSOC team collaborated with creators at JPL’s in-house DesignLab when determining what video they wanted to test in deep space.
The video, uploaded to DSOC before Psyche’s launch, also includes a graphic overlay showing Psyche’s orbital path, the Palomar telescope dome, and Taters’ color, type, and heart rate.
“Despite being transmitted from millions of miles away, it managed to send video faster than most broadband internet connections,” Ryan Rogalin, DSOC receiver electronics leader at JPL, said in a statement.
“In fact, after the video was received at Palomar, it was sent over the internet to JPL, and that connection was slower than the signal from deep space. JPL DesignLab did a great job helping us showcase this technology; everyone loves Taters.”
Aside from the widespread popularity of cat videos and memes, DSOC’s decision to include a cat video in the milestone is also a nod to its publication history. According to NASA, a figurine of the cartoon Felix the Cat was used in television test broadcast broadcasts starting in 1928.
Major milestone
The latest successful test of the laser experiment follows DSOC’s Nov. 14 milestone of what engineers call “first light,” reaching the ability to successfully send and receive the first data. Since then, the tech demo has only evolved, showcasing capabilities like improved pointing accuracy, which is crucial when sending laser messages to Earth from space.
The laser’s fast data download speed is comparable to broadband internet, and the DSOC team recently downloaded 1.3 terabits of data in one evening; This compares with the 1.2 terabits sent to Venus by NASA’s Magellan mission over four years in the 1990s.
“When we reached first light we were excited but also cautious. It’s a new technology and we’re experimenting with how it works,” said JPL project flight operations leader Ken Andrews. “But now, with the help of our Psyche colleagues, we’re getting used to working with the system and can lock onto the spacecraft and ground terminals for longer periods of time than before. We’re learning something new with every payoff.”
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