Numerous velvet paws are already little internet stars. But one is now achieving not only international fame, but even galactic fame: Taters, a NASA employee’s orange tabby cat. He stars in the 15-second video that shows him chasing a laser dot.
With the cat video from space, the US space agency NASA tested a state-of-the-art laser communication system. According to NASA, the cat video was sent to Earth via laser on Monday from a space probe that is currently 31 million kilometers from our planet.
The high-resolution video, which shows Taters chasing a laser dot, was stored on the Psyche probe before launch. The probe is on its way to the asteroid of the same name, which is 3.6 billion kilometers from Earth and is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The probe is scheduled to reach it in 2029.
New laser communication system tested
On its flight through space, NASA used the probe to test its new laser communication system. The transmitted data was received by the Hale Telescope in California and forwarded to NASA’s JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The transmission of the Ultra HD video only took 101 seconds.
The video:
NASA wanted to test the transmission of high data rates via laser over long distances, which is important for complex missions such as the planned manned Mars missions. Of course, cat videos are not needed on missions like this. “Typically we send packets with randomly generated test data,” said JPL expert Bill Klipstein. In order to make the experiment “even more memorable,” an “entertaining video” has now been created and broadcast for the first time.
Space missions traditionally use radio communications to send and receive data. However, laser communication enables data rates ten to a hundred times higher. The cat video was transmitted at a data rate of up to 267 megabits per second – faster than most broadband Internet access on Earth.
