The NASA Cat Video Explained – Teachable Moments

Find out how the now well-known video beamed from area, exhibiting a cat chasing a laser, marked a milestone for area exploration, and discover assets to have interaction college students in associated STEM studying.

You might have seen within the information final month that NASA beamed a cat video from area. It was all a part of a check of latest expertise referred to as Deep Space Optical Communications. While the video went down in cat video historical past, the NASA expertise used to transmit the primary ultra-high-definition video from deep area additionally represented a historic development for area exploration – the potential to stream movies from the Moon, Mars, and past.

Read on to find out how this new expertise will revolutionize area communications. Then, discover STEM studying assets that may get college students utilizing coding, math, and engineering to discover extra about how NASA communicates with spacecraft.

Communicating with spacecraft throughout the photo voltaic system means sending knowledge – akin to instructions, photographs, measurements, and standing stories – over huge distances, with journey instances restricted by the velocity of sunshine. NASA spacecraft have historically used radio indicators to transmit data to Earth through the Deep Space Network, or DSN. The DSN is made up of an array of large antennas located across the globe (in California, Spain, and Australia) that enable us to maintain involved with distant spacecraft as Earth rotates.

When scientists and engineers need to ship instructions to a spacecraft in deep area, they flip to the Deep Space Network, NASA’s worldwide array of large antennas. | Watch on YouTube

Although sending transmissions utilizing radio frequencies works nicely, advances in spacecraft expertise imply we’re gathering and transmitting much more knowledge than prior to now. The extra knowledge a spacecraft collects and must transmit to Earth, the extra time it takes to transmit that knowledge. And with so many spacecraft ready to take their flip transmitting through the DSN’s antennas, a type of knowledge site visitors jam is on the horizon.

This interactive reveals a real-time simulated view of communications between spacecraft and the DSN. Explore extra on DSN Now

To alleviate the potential site visitors jam, NASA is testing expertise referred to as optical communications, which permits spacecraft to ship and obtain knowledge at the next data charge so that every transmission takes much less of the DSN’s time.

The expertise advantages scientists and engineers – or anybody who’s fascinated by area – by permitting robotic spacecraft exploring planets we will not but go to in person to ship high-definition imagery and stream video to Earth for additional examine. Optical communications may additionally play an essential position in upcoming human missions to the Moon and ultimately to Mars, which would require a number of knowledge transmission, together with video communication.

But why transmit a video of a cat? For a check of this sort, engineers would usually ship randomly generated check knowledge. But, on this case, to mark what was a major occasion for the mission, the crew at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory labored with the middle’s DesignLab to create a enjoyable video that includes the pet of a JPL worker – a now well-known orange tabby named Taters – chasing a laser. The video was additionally a nod to the mission’s use of lasers (extra on that in a minute) and the primary tv check broadcast in 1928 that featured a statue of the cartoon character Felix the Cat.

This 15-second ultra-high-definition video that includes a cat named Taters was streamed through laser from deep area by NASA on Dec. 11, 2023. | Watch on YouTube

Since there are extra infrared than radio wavelengths over a specific distance, extra knowledge will be despatched over the identical distance utilizing infrared. And because the velocity of infrared and radio waves is the same as the velocity of sunshine, this additionally implies that extra knowledge will be despatched in the identical size of time utilizing infrared.

As a consequence, DSOC’s most data charge is round 267 megabits per second (Mbps), sooner than many terrestrial web indicators. At that top knowledge charge, the 153.6 megabit cat video took solely 0.58 seconds to transmit and one other 101 seconds to journey the 19 million miles to Earth on the velocity of sunshine. Instead, if we had despatched the cat video utilizing Psyche’s radio transmitter, which has a knowledge charge of 360 kilobits per second, it might have taken 426 seconds to transmit the video, plus the identical speed-of-light journey time, to get to Earth.

Here’s how DSOC goals to revolutionize deep area communications. | Watch on YouTube

This form of spacecraft communications is not with out its challenges. Accurately pointing the slim laser beam is likely one of the best challenges of optical communications.

DSOC consists of a “flight laser transceiver” aboard the Psyche spacecraft – which is presently on its journey to check the asteroid 16-Psyche – and a receiving station on Earth. The flight transceiver is a 22-centimeter-diameter equipment that may each transmit and obtain indicators. Its most transmitter energy is a low 4 Watts. For the December 2023 check, a 160-Watt beacon sign was transmitted to the DSOC flight transceiver by a 1-meter telescope positioned at JPL’s Table Mountain facility close to Wrightwood, California. This beacon sign was utilized by the Psyche spacecraft as a pointing reference so it may precisely purpose the DSOC transceiver on the Earth receiving station – the 5-meter Hale telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory close to San Diego.

This animation reveals how DSOC’s laser indicators are despatched between the Psyche spacecraft and floor stations on Earth – first as a pointing reference to make sure correct aiming of the slim laser sign after which as a knowledge transmission to the receiving station. | Watch on YouTube

When the DSOC laser beam encounters Earth, it’s a lot narrower than a radio sign transmitted from the identical distance. In reality, the laser beam is just a few hundred kilometers broad when it reaches Earth, in sharp distinction with an roughly 2.5-million-kilometer-wide radio sign. This slim beam have to be pointed precisely sufficient so it not solely intersects Earth, but additionally overlaps the receiving station. To be certain that the beam will likely be obtained at Palomar Observatory, the transmission have to be aimed circuitously at Earth, however at some extent the place Earth will likely be in its orbit when the sign arrives after touring the good distance from the spacecraft.

What’s subsequent for laser communications

Engineers will do further checks of the DSOC system because the Psyche spacecraft continues its 2.2-billion-mile (3.6-billion-kilometer) journey to its vacation spot within the asteroid belt past Mars. Over the subsequent couple of years, DSOC will make weekly contacts with Earth. Visit NASA’s DSOC web site to comply with alongside as NASA places the system via its paces to probably usher in a brand new technique of transmitting knowledge via area.

TAGS: Ok-12 Education, Educators, Students, Learning Resources, Teaching Resources, DSOC, DSN, Deep Space Network

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  Ota Lutz, Ok-12 Education Group Manager, NASA-JPL Education Office

  Ota Lutz is the supervisor of the Ok-12 Education Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. When she’s not writing new classes or instructing, she’s in all probability cooking one thing scrumptious, volunteering locally, or dreaming about the place she’s going to journey subsequent.