Cat video from space: NASA tests state-of-the-art laser communication system

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According to the nose, the probe is currently 31 million kilometers away from our planet. High-definition video showing a tabby cat with organs named Taters chasing a laser dot was stored on the Psyche probe before it was launched.

Psyche is heading towards the asteroid of the same name, which is 3.6 billion kilometers away from Earth and located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The probe is planned to arrive in 2029.

During its flight into space, NASA used the probe to test its new laser communication system. The transmitted data was received by the Hale Telescope in California, USA, and transmitted to NASA’s JPL jet propulsion laboratory. It took 101 seconds for the video to reach Earth.

NASA wanted to test the transmission of high data rates via laser over long distances, which is important for complex missions such as planned manned Mars missions. Of course, there is no need for cat videos in such tasks. “We normally send packets with randomly generated test data,” said JPL expert Bill Klipstein. To make the experiment “even more memorable”, a “fun video” has now been created and published for the first time.

Space missions traditionally use radio communications to send and receive data. However, laser communications allow data rates ten to a hundred times higher. Cat video was transmitted at a data rate of up to 267 megabits per second; this was faster than most broadband Internet access on Earth.

(SDA)

Source : Blick