NASA transmitted a video of a red cat named Tatters from deep space to Earth
NASA specialists have successfully conducted an experiment on the use of laser communication in deep space. During the experiment, they transmitted a short video with a red cat to Earth. This is stated in the report of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
The experiment using the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) system was conducted on December 11. As part of it, scientists transmitted a 15-second ultra-high-definition video stream from a distance of almost 31 million kilometers, which was a record.
“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,” NASA explained.
The video signal reached the Earth in 101 seconds and was transmitted at a maximum speed of 267 Mbps. The “main role” in the test video went to a red cat named Tatters. He is the pet of a JPL employee, and in the video he chases a laser pointer.
Last month, NASA tested laser communication in space, receiving a signal from a distance of 16 million kilometers. The data was sent from the Psyche spacecraft, which was launched to study a metal-rich asteroid.