While the video has all the requisite cuteness of a regular cat video, the rate in which the video traveled is the main achievement according to NASA. The test showed that DSOC and optical communications in general can transmit large amounts of data, fast. The 15-second test video took 101 seconds to reach Earth, traveling at the system’s maximum bit rate of 267 megabits per second (Mbps).
“Despite transmitting from millions of miles away, it was able to send the video faster than most broadband internet connections,” said Ryan Rogalin, the project’s receiver electronics lead at JPL. He went on to note that it actually took longer to send the video from Palomar to JPL over the internet than it took Psyche to send the video to Palomar from outer space. Taters’ video won’t be the last bit of animal-themed space science for JPL, either. The lab has also been working on a slithering, swimming robot snake to help NASA explore the surface of uncharted worlds.
