Cats and NASA have something in common – a fascination with lasers

Earlier this month, NASA engineers gathered at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, were fist-pumping and presumably laughing after watching a cat video.

But their reaction wasn’t because of the video’s content – it was because the 15-second clip was successfully sent to Earth from ~19 million miles away, or roughly 80x the distance from Earth to the Moon.

This test comes at a time when sending information through space is about to get especially important. NASA currently uses radio frequency systems to communicate with objects in space.

But this system has its limitations. Radio frequencies struggle to handle the amount of data needed to transmit higher volumes of high-quality images and video over great distances.

The agency is gearing up to return to the Moon, with an eye on traveling to the next human exploration frontier – Mars. And in order to support astronauts on these journeys, higher-data-rate communications capable of sending complex scientific information, high-definition imagery, and video need to be in place.

• The recent test ironically sent the video of the cat playing with a laser via laser communications, which is designed to transmit data up to 100x faster than the current radio systems.
• It took less than two minutes for the ultra-HD video – sent at the test system's maximum rate of 267 Mbps – to reach Earth.

👀 Looking ahead… At the end of June, NASA engineers expect to be able to successfully transmit data 186 million miles. Mars is ~229 million miles away from Earth.