It\u2019s been quite a year for laser communications in space. In October and November, NASA launched two pioneering demonstrations to test high-bandwidth optical communication links, and these tech demos are now showing some initial results.<\/p>\n
On December 11, a laser communications terminal aboard NASA\u2019s Psyche spacecraft on the way to an asteroid linked up with a receiver in Southern California. The near-infrared laser beam contained an encoded message in the form of a 15-second ultra-high-definition video showing a cat bouncing around a sofa, chasing the light of a store-bought laser toy.<\/p>\n
Laser communications offer the benefit of transmitting data at a higher rate than achievable with conventional radio links. In fact, the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment on the Psyche spacecraft is testing technologies capable of sending data at rates 10 to 100 times greater than possible on prior missions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking to increase the amount of data we can get down to Earth, and that has a lot of advantages to us,\u201d said Jeff Volosin, acting deputy associate administrator for NASA space communications and navigation program, before the launch of Psyche earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Now, DSOC has set a record for the farthest distance a high-definition video has streamed from space. At the time, Psyche was traveling 19 million miles (31 kilometers) from Earth, about 80 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. Traveling at the speed of light, the video signal took 101 seconds to reach Earth, sent at the system\u2019s maximum bit rate of 267 megabits per second, NASA said.<\/p>\n
After reaching the receiver at Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, each video frame was transmitted \u201clive\u201d to NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where it was played in real time, according to NASA.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the goals is to demonstrate the ability to transmit broadband video across millions of miles. Nothing on Psyche generates video data, so we usually send packets of randomly generated test data,\u201d said Bill Klipstein, the tech demo\u2019s project manager at JPL, in a statement. \u201cBut to make this significant event more memorable, we decided to work with designers at JPL to create a fun video, which captures the essence of the demo as part of the Psyche mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The video of Taters, the orange tabby cat of a JPL employee, was recorded before the launch of Psyche and stored on the spacecraft for this demonstration. The robotic probe launched on October 13 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, with the primary goal of flying to the asteroid Psyche, a metal-rich world in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.<\/p>\n