In case you missed it, NASA lately beamed this “Cat video from Space” on December 11.
The video was despatched utilizing laser optics from the NASA Psyche spacecraft as a part of the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) expertise experiment. DSOC is an experiment to show laser-based communications from deep area to enhance conventional microwave radio based mostly communications, since lasers can present a lot greater knowledge charges at a lot decrease measurement, weight and energy for the onboard tools.
During the occasion, the Psyche spacecraft was 31 million km away. It took 101 seconds for mild to journey from the spacecraft to the receiving station in Palomar, CA. The knowledge fee achieved within the experiment was a blazing 267 Mbps! www.jpl.nasa.gov/…
The 15-second ultra-HD video options Taters the cat, who lives with Joby Harris, a visible strategist for the NASA laboratory’s design staff, which makes use of artwork to speak missions to the general public. In the video, 3-year old Taters is proven chasing a pink laser (video of cat chasing laser beamed down utilizing a laser, obtained it!). The cat video additionally has a graphical overlay of technical details about DSOC, the Psyche spacecraft, information about Taters together with its coronary heart fee and DSOC knowledge charges achievable at numerous distances.
The video was created and saved on the spacecraft earlier than launch which took place on Oct 13.
Psyche and DSOC
DSOC is a expertise demonstration piggybacked on the Psyche spacecraft, which was launched on Oct 13, 2023, to review the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche in 2029.
See the graphic under for an outline of DSOC and its parameters.
A 4W infrared laser onboard the spacecraft is used to modulate knowledge utilizing mild at 1.55 µm wavelength. A 200-inch telescope, superconducting detectors and complicated sign processing tools is used on the Palomar Observatory in California to recuperate knowledge from the faint sign and to ahead it to JPL. A decrease fee uplink is transmitted from JPL’s analysis station at Table Mountain, NE of JPL, to assist the optical tools within the spacecraft level its laser with excessive precision on the receiving station.
Downlink knowledge charges lower with distance, falling to 1 Mbps at 2.5 AU (1 AU = 150 million km = imply Earth-Sun distance); charges are greater at night time than throughout daytime (one can guess why).
The spacecraft telescope meeting has a point-ahead mirror, which is used for fine-pointing of the laser and for “pointing forward” for the reason that receiver can transfer fairly a distance after the photons go away the quarterback laser transmitter. E.g., within the 8.3 minutes it takes mild to journey 1 AU, earth strikes about 15,000 km alongside its orbit.
The Hale Telescope and the Palomar Observatory
The DSOC laser beam was obtained utilizing the 200-inch Hale Telescope on the Palomar Observatory situated in San Diego County, CA. The astronomical analysis middle is owned and operated by Caltech.
The 200-inch Hale Telescope (f/3.3) was the world’s largest efficient telescope for 45 years (1948-1993). The revolutionary telescope was thought-about the “moon shot” of the Nineteen Thirties and 40s.
You can learn extra concerning the telescope at https://websites.astro.caltech.edu/paloma and take a captivating digital tour of the ability at websites.astro.caltech.edu/…
Epilogue
Why a cat video? Obviously, cats have a particular relationship with humankind and with the Internet as we speak. Also, cats and cat photos have been utilized in area missions and TV check broadcasts earlier than. The cat chasing a laser beam was a pleasant contact. It actually obtained everybody’s consideration.
More importantly, this paves the best way for laser based mostly communications from deep area on to earth, whose greater knowledge charges can be helpful for future deep area missions.
Well completed, NASA and NASA engineers 🐱🐱🐱
