7 ms·
NASA’s tech demo streams first video from deep space via laser
- Someone 3y agoHow far we’ve come in less than half a century: 1977: NASA sends a carefully created record containing “sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form who may find them” into space (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record) 2023: NASA sends a cat video into space.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- pfdietz 3y agoObviously they should have sent cat memes in 1977.
- eichin 3y agoI was going to be pedantic about this (the laser downlink is from space, from Psyche-probe to Earth) but that got me wondering, how did they get the cat video on board? The article points out that it was loaded onto Psyche before launch. Which means we're using rockets to send cat videos into (interplanetary) space... the logical evolution of the "station wagon full of magtapes" meme.
- tomatotomato37 3y agoimagine as a species being so powerful that you manipulate the fabric of reality to taint professional interstellar communication with an audiovisual feed of your presence amazing
- have_faith 3y agoHaven't we been inadvertently sending our terrestrial broadcasts into space for decades? I remember a Futurama episode about aliens watching our TV programs.
- whartung 3y agoThere's that old adage that Man used to worship cats, and that cats still think that's true. I'm not positive the cats are wrong. I mean, consider the Internet. ARPA invented the Internet. And, it's clear that the Internet's primary purpose is as an avenue for Cat worship. Just as the cats want. ARPA became DARPA, DEFENSE Advanced Research Project Agency. DEFENSE! As in defending the homeland from external and existential threats. Normally they focus on things like lasers, and nuclear weapons, and preventing space rocks from slamming into the Earth and ending civilization. But, they still have their hooks into the Internet. Promoting adoption, increasing capability. And, as posited before, the primary purpose of the Internet is facilitating cat worship. What does DARPA know that we don't? MEANWHILE, we're having open Congressional panels about Aliens. No more cloak and dagger surrounding UFOs and and what not. That jig is up! Apparently, whatever secret pact the G-Men had with the Aliens is no longer in place. The cover is off, it's now just a matter of time. But where are the hearings on Cats and their paws at the throats of power? We don't hear about that, do we? Cleary, this is far more dangerous than anything intra- or inter-galactic aliens can bring to the table. So. I know, I know, I am but a whisper in the wind. An internet crackpot and troll. That, however, doesn't make the truth less clear. At the same time, this message should be questioned. My cat, Georgie, is here and let me send it. Why? I guess the cat being out of the bag is ok with them. And I must cut this short, apparently there a tummy that needs to be rubbed.
- I_Am_Nous 3y agoAs cute as Taters is, we already have Nyancat traveling through space so I'm a little disappointed Nyancat wasn't at least on the screen as "test information" lol
- cooper_ganglia 3y agoMajor missed opportunity
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- atmavatar 3y agoThat, or they could have sent a clip from the movie The Cat From Outer Space https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077305/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077305/
- I_Am_Nous 3y agoAw I loved that movie as a kid, yet another missed opportunity by NASA!
- FlingPoo 3y ago10 hours of Nyan Cat for your pleasure. :) https://youtu.be/jIQ6UV2onyI https://youtu.be/jIQ6UV2onyI
- huhtenberg 3y agoIt's copyrighted and the copyright is enforced - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyan_Cat#Lawsuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyan_Cat#Lawsuit
- m3kw9 3y agoI wonder how much error correction data was needed to be added
- codezero 3y agoYep I’m curious about what encoding was used. I doubt it was video optimized as realtime decoding likely wasn’t a goal.
- basementcat 3y agoThis is the channel coding and synchronization specification that is used on DSOC. https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/142x0b1.pdf https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/142x0b1.pdf
- tromp 3y agoThe laster travelled over 30 million km to be received by a dish of 20m^2 in area [1]. This makes me wonder: what fraction of the transmitted signal made it to that dish, i.e. how much does the beam disperse over that distance? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hale_Telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hale_Telescope
- codezero 3y agoThey also mention the video was sent on a loop, so I wonder how many loops it took to collect every frame.
- Sporktacular 3y agoIf they received at 267 Mb/s that's probably faster than necessary for realtime decoding.
- sansseriff 3y agoThe laser spot can reach half the size of the continental united states. Though I'm not sure how large it is now because psyche is still relatively close to earth.
- account42 3y agoLIFE:: 5/9 Maybe Taters shouldn't chase after lasers with remaining lives.
- AnimalMuppet 3y agoAfter traveling that distance, I would expect the video to be kind of... fuzzy. Right, I'll show myself out...
- devsda 3y ago> Beginning in 1928, a small statue of the popular cartoon character Felix the Cat was featured in television test broadcast transmissions So, cats have been dominating the airwaves from the beginning of broadcast video. The article says the video was sent to earth at 267 Mbps. As much as we are interested in watching interstellar feline adventures, I'd imagine future astronauts will be equally or more interested in watching videos of their favorite cats(or humans occasionally). So, I'm curious to know the max speed at which we can transmit from earth to a spacecraft at similar distances.
- daltont 3y ago"cats have been dominating the airwaves from the beginning of broadcast video." Maybe the Kzinti will think we are long lost relatives after receiving them. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kzin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kzin)
- Sanzig 3y agoAll else being equal, you could conceivably push a higher data rate on the forward link. The apertures are the same size, just the transmit and receive apertures are reversed, so geometric losses would be exactly the same. However, you can get a much more powerful laser on the ground since you don't have to worry about the power and thermal constraints you have with the transmitter on the spacecraft. This advantage will be pared down somewhat as the spacecraft won't have as sensitive a detector as the ground station (since it's harder to actively cool it for low dark count, for example). But on balance I expect you will come out ahead. That said, on real world deep space missions, forward links are generally much slower than return links. This is because the slower you go, the better margin you have to close a link in adverse conditions (eg: mis-pointed spacecraft antenna for an RF link). Since you are completely screwed if you can't command the spacecraft, TT&C engineers will always go for a slower rate on the forward link for added Murphy insurance unless there's a pressing need to do otherwise.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- pvaldes 3y agoTrying to lure ALF with a dish. That's dedication.
- huhtenberg 3y agoHow would one go about receiving and decoding such transmission at home? I would assume it's doable, no?
- gene-h 3y agoThey used the Palomar observatory's Hale telescope to receive the signal. So it may be doable provided you have a 5.1 m aperture telescope at home
- simne 3y agoI wonder, when cat will send from other star.
- yegle 3y ago"The video signal took 101 seconds to reach Earth, sent at the system’s maximum bit rate of 267 megabits per second (Mbps)." Based on some quick search, this is comparable to US median broadband download speed.
- xnx 3y agoI think this also means that the the capacity of the empty space in 3.4GB. Someone has previously pointed out the interesting networking/caching(/storage?) implications for such long transmission time.
- EvanAnderson 3y agoIndeed, you could use that empty space as delay line memory. That's some wicked latency, though.
- mk_stjames 3y agoThis idea is covered during the first part of one of my favorite Tom7 videos. If this comment is the first you are hearing of Tom7... strap in and enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcJSW7Rprio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcJSW7Rprio
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ben7799 3y agoKind of amazing the article doesn't contain the word latency a single time. It's good they're improving throughput/bandwidth but it doesn't help the big problem which is the latency.
- pxeger1 3y agoI mean the latency problem is definitely not solvable, so why would they be trying to work on it?
- 3y ago
- marc__1 3y agoIs this humanity's first attempt to test the Dark Forest Theory?
- Sanzig 3y agoThe opposite, if anything. The beam widths used for practical high bandwidth laser communication are extremely narrow. An alien civilization would have to (1) be in the exceedingly tiny fraction of the sky the beam covers, (2) have an unfathomably massive telescope with a correspondingly unfathomably tiny field of view capable of capturing enough photons to make a statistically significant detection, and (3) have that telescope pointed at the exact spot in their sky where the spacecraft is during an interval where it's transmitting. The odds are quite literally astronomical.
- basementcat 3y agoFor more of "Taters the Space Cat" check out its Instagram https://www.instagram.com/taters_space_cat/ https://www.instagram.com/taters_space_cat/
- daltont 3y agoIt would be just be cool just to have a HD footage of satellite orbiting Mars or Venus.
- dwd 3y agoWhile not mentioned in the article, Spacelink (a spinoff from EOS) has a contract with the GSFC for tracking space objects for high bandwidth communication. Interesting thing is EOS originally started in this field and later found there is a huge opportunity in military applications for it's stabilised tracking hardware/software such as remote weapons stations while the vehicle is moving. https://eos-aus.com/nasa-awards-contract-to-spacelink/ https://eos-aus.com/nasa-awards-contract-to-spacelink/
- Sporktacular 3y agoA 267 Mb/s UHD cat video from 31 million kms. What an age we live in.
- peter_d_sherman 3y ago>"The video, featuring a cat named Taters, was sent back from nearly 19 million miles away by NASA’s laser communications demonstration, marking a historic milestone." My thoughts: As Neil Armstrong might say: "One small step for Man, one giant leap for... Taters?!?!?!?!? No, I'm just kidding about that of course! <g> :-) <g> (https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong) But on a more serious note, I think what NASA has accomplished here is a big step forward for future high bandwidth deep space communication... Also, let's not forget that light, in this case, laser light, should travel at least a little bit faster than radio waves (the previous "old skool" method for deep space communication) -- at least if the classical physics EM theories hold true. (Side note: It would be interesting to know if laser light travels any faster, if even by the smallest amount, than regular light over extremely long distances -- but that's probably a future experiment for future experimenters...) Anyway, it's a huge step forward for deep space communication! Way to go NASA!!! You guys rock! (As Felix Schlang might say!)
- GeertB 3y agoThat's quite the bandwidth-delay product at 3.3GB.