A new milestone for interplanetary video transmission NASA received a live broadcast from deep space, 31 million kilometers away: Video captured in 4K resolution. Technology that will be essential for missions to the Moon and Mars.
It’s not like a strange cat called us. What happened is that NASA I sent Video Taters, A cat The orange tabby, from the Psyche probe, orbiting 31 million kilometers from Earth. He or she 90 times the distance to the moon. Here you can see it:
Overlaid in the graphics is technical data, such as Psyche’s orbit and NASA’s control information.
In case you were wondering, Taters the cat belongs to a NASA employee who participated in the experiment.
How does NASA’s 4K satellite video broadcast work?
The North American space agency has been broadcasting videos for more than 50 years on its missions to the moon. The great news is that first, This is a 4K videoAnd the second, It’s flowAny live broadcast. Not to mention that the distance is much greater.
To carry out this transmission, he installed the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) system on the Psyche spacecraft.
On December 11, This probe transmitted a 15-second video using an encoded near-infrared laser. This laser beam takes only 101 seconds to travel the 31 million kilometers that separate the probe from Earth, as it travels at the speed of light.
The laser was captured by the Hale Telescope in Palomar, in San Diego County (California). After establishing the connection, The video was transmitted via live stream, in real time, at 267 MbpsFaster than most home internet connections.
So NASA was able to watch the video live and uncut, as it was transmitted from deep space.
The flow of Cat Taters from millions of kilometers away is a very important milestone for NASA. You already have the technology for it Live video communication with astronauts traveling to the Moon or Mars In a few years.
