Nasa / JPL
A tabby cat named Taters has become the protagonist of the first high-definition video streamed from space using laser technology.
The 15-second clip shows the cat chasing a red dot created by a laser pointer, overlaid with graphics showing technical mission information, as well as Taters’ breed, heart rate and age.
The video was sent using a flight laser transceiver from Nasa’s Psyche mission, located 19 million miles (31 million kilometres) from Earth. It is part of the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment (DSOC).
The success of the test could pave the way for faster and improved communications between the Earth and space exploration missions, such as potential missions to Mars.
“This accomplishment underscores our commitment to advancing optical communications as a key element to meeting our future data transmission needs,” said Nasa deputy administrator Pam Melroy. “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 experiment took place from Nasa’s Psyche spacecraft, which was launched in October 2023 and is currently on its way towards 16 Psyche, a metal asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter.
The cat clip was uploaded to the spacecraft before the launch. The mission was then able to send the 15-second test video back to Earth using a cutting-edge instrument called a flight laser transceiver. The video signal was sent at a rate of 267 megabits per second and took 101 seconds to complete the journey.
The encoded near-infrared laser signal was received by the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, where it was downloaded. Each frame from the looping video was then sent “live” to Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, where the video was played in real time.
“Despite transmitting from millions of miles away, it was able to send the video faster than most broadband internet connections,” said Ryan Rogalin, lead scientist for the project. “In fact, after receiving the video at Palomar, it was sent to JPL over the internet, and that connection was slower than the signal coming from deep space. JPL’s DesignLab did an amazing job helping us showcase this technology – everyone loves Taters.”
The researchers had previously tested the system last month, but decided to conduct the livestream of the tabby to showcase the technology’s potential. Bill Klipstein, the demonstration project manager at JPL, said it was designed to “make this significant event more memorable”.
Taters is owned by a JPL employee and has never been to outer space.
