A video of Tatters the cat chasing a laser pointer dot has traveled a record distance: over 30 million kilometers. He helped demonstrate a completely new method of communication for NASA.
The video of Tatters chasing the dot was uploaded in high quality in mid-December. Thus, he made history by communicating over distances greater than 40 times from the Earth to the Moon and back. Thus, NASA demonstrated how it is possible to stream live, high-quality video from space. This solution will be useful when examining objects that are much further than the orbit of our planet.
Optical communication will meet the demands of the future
The demonstration involved sending a 15-second film through completely new telecommunications equipment: a flight laser transciever, i.e. a laser transmitter and receiver. The video was broadcast as part of the Psyche mission, which launched from Earth on October 13, 2023. The big transmission test took place on December 11. Earlier, Psyche transmitted several test signals, and subsequent corrections allowed us to increase the connection speed.
The signal was received on Earth 101 seconds after transmission. The maximum link bandwidth is 267 megabits per second. The signal was transmitted by a near-infrared laser and was received by the Hale Telescope at the California Observatory. The film was broadcast in a loop, and each frame, after being decoded, was displayed in the NASA laboratory, almost live.
The laser transmission demonstration laid the foundations for communication over distances 10-100 times greater than the currently most advanced radio equipment used by space missions. The Psyche probe is on its way to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The signals it transmits will therefore be a good test for future communication between Mars and Earth, even if the planets are at the maximum possible distance from each other. This is another element of the great preparations to send people to the Red Planet.
Since nothing on the Psyche spacecraft is currently recording video, scientists prepared a video of the cat. This appeals to the imagination of Earthlings much better than random packets of test data. Taters is obviously the star, but the video also includes additional information about Psyche’s route and the technical parameters of the broadcast. There is also information about the heart rate, color and species of Taters.
Photo source: NASA
Text source: NASA
2023-12-25 17:20:48
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