The first video from space starring “a cat”... How did that happen?

2023-12-23 2023-12-23T12:17:06Z

ArabiaWeather - NASA announced a historic achievement using an advanced laser communications system, as a video was broadcast from space showing a cat called “Taters” from a distance of 19 million miles (31 million kilometers) from Earth. This achievement is considered an important step in communication technologies. Satellite, and represents one of the historical landmarks.

This success comes within a technical project by NASA that aims to broadcast high-resolution video clips and transmit other data from deep space, with the aim of enabling future human missions to be sent outside Earth’s orbit. Pam Milroy, NASA’s Deputy Administrator, said:

“This achievement reflects our commitment to developing optical communications as an essential component of meeting our future data transmission needs.”

Historic test video... "Taters" the space cat takes broadcasts from space

NASA presented an amazing 15-second demonstration, in which the hero was the cat "Taters" , which belongs to an employee at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Taters" were filmed and transmitted space videos using an advanced and unique technology, and an aviation laser transceiver was used in In this innovative demonstration, the video signal took 101 seconds to reach Earth, where it was successfully decoded, resulting in a successful video stream from deep space.

Laser communication technology is designed to achieve efficient data transmission from deep space, and successfully passed the testing phase with NASA's Psyche mission on October 13. This technology provides data transmission rates 10 to 100 times greater than modern radio frequency systems currently used in deep space missions.

Ryan Rogalin, project receiver electronics lead at JPL, noted that the process of receiving the video at Palomar and transmitting it to JPL over the Internet was successful, as the signal arrived from deep space at a speed faster than conventional signals.

Why cat video?

The historical connection is evident in this context, according to JPL. As the United States became increasingly interested in visual communication in the 1920s, a “Statue of Felix the Cat” was broadcast as a test image.