Why NASA beaming cat video across 31 million kilometres is a big deal

The US space agency NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has beamed back a video to Earth from nearly 19 million miles (31 million kilometres) away.

It features a cat named 'Taters' in a short 15-second clip. This marks the first time that NASA has streamed a video from deep space using a laser.

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.

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 (@NASA) December 19, 2023

What

• The cat video was transmitted to Earth from a flight laser transceiver as part of the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment (DSOC). This technology could quickly transmit data, imagery, and videos.

• The video, encoded in a near-infrared laser, was beamed from the Psyche spacecraft to the Hale Telescope at the California Institute of Technology’s Palomar Observatory.

• This video was downloaded at the observatory on December 11, and each frame was streamed live at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

• During the transmission, the Psyche spacecraft was 80 times farther from Hale than the distance between Earth and the moon. The laser took a mere 101 seconds to reach Earth.

Why is this a big deal?

• The laser can send data at speeds 10 to 100 times faster than traditional radio wave systems used by NASA on other missions.

• NASA's tech demo aimed to be the farthest-reaching experiment in high-bandwidth laser communications. It tested the transmission and reception of data to and from Earth utilising an unseen near-infrared laser.

• NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy stated, "This accomplishment underscores our commitment to advancing optical communications as a key element to meeting our future data transmission needs. Increasing our bandwidth is essential 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."

• The most recent successful test of the laser experiment follows DSOC's milestone on November 14, where engineers achieved "first light" – the accomplishment of successfully transmitting and receiving its initial set of data.

• Subsequently, the tech demo has progressed, highlighting enhancements such as improved pointing accuracy, a crucial factor when transmitting laser messages from space to Earth.

• The laser’s fast data downlink speeds are comparable to broadband internet. The DSOC team recently downloaded 1.3 terabits of data in one evening. This is compared to the 1.2 terabits sent back by NASA’s Magellan mission to Venus over four years in the 1990s.

Here's a link of the video of the cat

The video, uploaded to DSOC prior to the Psyche launch, incorporates a graphics overlay illustrating Psyche's orbital trajectory, the Palomar telescope dome, and details about Taters' colour, breed, and heart rate.