NASA has streamed the first ultra-HD video (of a cat!) via laser from deep space, paving the way for higher-data-rate communications in future missions.
NASA has achieved an impressive first by streaming an ultra-HD video to Earth by laser from 19 million miles away.
“This will pave the way for higher-data-rate communications in support of the next giant leap: sending humans to Mars,” the space agency said in a social media post on Monday announcing the feat.
The footage was created here on Earth before being sent to deep space with NASA’s Psyche mission, which launched in October. It features a cat named Taters chasing a laser pointer because … well … everyone loves a cat video. And here it is:
NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment beamed the 15-second video from deep space to Earth on December 11 from 19 million miles away (31 million kilometers, or about 80 times the Earth-moon distance). Using a cutting-edge instrument called a flight laser transceiver, the video signal took 101 seconds to reach Earth, sent at the system’s maximum bit rate of 267 megabits per second (Mbps), NASA said.
