That’s right, NASA used the Psyche spacecraft’s cutting-edge communications system – 31 million km away from Earth – to send back high-definition video of a cat!
While cats may not lay claim to the title of man’s best friend, few can dispute their pole-position when it comes to Internet videos and memes. AND even NASA it followed the common sentiment. But the choice of a cat also has a historical connection. In fact, when American interest in television began to grow in the 1920s, the figure of Felix the Cat was broadcast as a test image. The video reached Earth thanks to the use of a laser transceiver present on the Psyche probe, which is traveling towards the main asteroid belt – between Mars and Jupiter – to explore a mysterious object rich in metals. Aiming a laser beam from millions of kilometers away was a tough nut to crack, staying on topic.
From Psyche to Earth
Not to mention the time it takes for light to travel from Psyche to Earth. In fact, during the signal’s journey both the probe and the Earth changed their “initial” position, which consequently made it necessary to move the lasers in the uplink and downlink. In any case it was a success! The clip shows Tabby, a JPL employee’s pet, chasing a laser light onto a couch, with test graphics superimposed. These include the Psyche’s orbital path and technical information about the laser and its data bit rate.
The video and details of the test
When he sent the video, the probe was 80 times the Earth-Moon distance. The encoded near-infrared signal was received by the Hale telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory, and from there sent to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. One of the objectives of the test was to demonstrate the ability to transmit broadband video over millions of kilometers. “To make this event even more memorable, we decided to work with the designers at JPL to create a fun video that captures the essence of the demo as part of Psyche’s mission,” he says Bill Klipstein, technology demo project manager at JPL. Space missions usually use radio waves to send and receive data, but working with lasers can increase data speed by 10 to 100 times. Ultra-HD video took 101 seconds to be sent to Earth at the system’s maximum bit rate of 267 megabits per second, faster than most home broadband connections!
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