NASA beams ultra-HD cat video from space with laser technology
NASA has achieved a technological feat by transmitting an ultra-high definition video of a cat named Taters from deep space to Earth using laser communications. The 15-second clip was beamed from the agency's Psyche spacecraft, which is currently en route on a six-year journey to a distant asteroid. The spacecraft is located about 19 million miles from Earth, which is roughly 80 times the distance to the moon.
The transmission of the cat video took only 101 seconds, demonstrating the potential for high-speed data transfer, outpacing the speed of most current broadband internet connections. This experiment is part of NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications project, which aims to enhance communications capabilities for future human and robotic missions beyond Earth's orbit.
Utilizing near-infrared laser technology, similar to that used in fiber-optic internet on Earth, the video was encoded and sent to the Hale Telescope at the California Institute of Technology’s Palomar Observatory. The successful transmission of the video represents a significant advancement in NASA's ability to send and receive high-bandwidth data from deep space, which could be crucial for the exploration of planets like Mars and beyond.
