Dr. Seuss’ The Cat within the Hat is likely one of the most beloved fictional characters of all time. He reveals up unannounced to first make messes after which clear them up, instructing worthwhile life classes alongside the best way. He’s most well-known for his slapstick journey with Conrad and Sally, but in addition featured within the 80 episodes and 5 specials instructing children about every little thing from shadows to mirrors. In the hour-long particular The Cat within the Hat Knows a Lot About Space (streaming now on Peacock), the titular feline takes some children on a journey by the photo voltaic system.
Cats have been part of precise area exploration for the reason that early days, although their participation is restricted. In 1963, the French area program launched a cat named Félicette on a suborbital rocket. She skilled greater than 9g of acceleration and 5 minutes of weightlessness earlier than returning safely to the Earth. She just lately obtained a statue commemorating her contribution to area exploration.
Now, cats are as soon as once more making milestones within the race for area, this time within the type of a 15-second video transmitted from thousands and thousands of miles away.
NASA Beams a High-Definition Cat Video from 19-Million Miles Away
In October 2023, NASA launched its Psyche spacecraft on a visit to the metal-rich asteroid of the identical title. It isn’t there but, however the spacecraft is busy doing science within the meantime. Among its many obligations, Psyche is testing a brand new class of space-based laser communications applied sciences supposed to enhance our getting older deep area communications community. NASA simply carried out its first take a look at and it was a roaring success.
RELATED: NASA Will Test Laser Communications on Artemis II, Increasing Space Bandwidth
NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications know-how demonstration used an encoded near-infrared laser to beam high-definition video from the Psyche spacecraft to Earth. After touring a distance of 30 million kilometers (19 million miles), the beam was picked up by the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory. The video was then transmitted to JPL, the place observers had been handled to fifteen seconds of an orange tabby cat named Taters chasing round a laser mild.
The video may have been something, and these kinds of assessments often incorporate random knowledge packages, however the group needed to have a bit of enjoyable. So, an worker recorded a video of their very own cat and uploaded it to the spacecraft earlier than launch. While the video content material is admittedly foolish and undeniably cute, its profitable transmission has necessary implications.
What Psyche’s Laser-Beamed High-Def Cat Video Means for the Future of Space-Based Communications
“This accomplishment underscores our dedication to advancing optical communications as a key ingredient to assembly our future knowledge transmission wants. Increasing our bandwidth is important to attaining our future exploration and science objectives, and we sit up for the continued development of this know-how and the transformation of how we talk throughout future interplanetary missions,” mentioned NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, in a press release.
The sign was transmitted on the spacecraft’s most fee of 267 megabits per second and has the potential to be as much as 100 instances more practical than standard radio communications. As the spacecraft continues towards its namesake vacation spot, it’ll ship further communications assessments from so far as the orbit of Mars.
In spite of the spacecraft’s unbelievable distance, JPL scientists say they had been in a position to ship the info quicker than most ground-based broadband connections. “In fact, after receiving the video at Palomar, it was sent to JPL over the internet, and that connection was slower than the signal coming from deep space,” mentioned Ryan Rogalin, the mission’s receiver electronics lead.
As the Artemis program strikes ahead and humanity takes its subsequent steps out into the photo voltaic system, communications like this one can be used to ship scientific knowledge, audio and written communications, pictures, and high-definition video from the Moon, Mars, and past. And it began with a cat. Somehow, that feels proper.
Learn concerning the photo voltaic system in The Cat within the Hat Know a Lot About Space, streaming now on Peacock.
