NASA took to X to share a video of a cat named Taters. And why did that turn out to be a historic milestone for the agency? The video was sent back from about 19 million miles away by NASA’s laser communications demonstration.
“We just streamed the first ultra-HD video brought to you via laser from deep space. And it’s a video of Taters, a tabby cat. This test will pave the way for high-data-rate communications in support of the next giant leap: sending humans to Mars,” the space agency tweeted.
Why is this a big deal?
“This accomplishment underscores our commitment to advancing optical communications as a key element to meeting our future data transmission needs,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “Increasing our bandwidth is essential to achieving our future exploration and science goals, and we look forward to the continued advancement of this technology and the transformation of how we communicate during future interplanetary missions,” Melroy added.
What does the video show?
The video shows Taters chasing a red dot of a laser pointer with overlaid graphics appearing on the screen. As per NASA, the cute cat is a pet of one of the employees at JPL.
Why a cat video?
{{/usCountry}}The video shows Taters chasing a red dot of a laser pointer with overlaid graphics appearing on the screen. As per NASA, the cute cat is a pet of one of the employees at JPL.
Why a cat video?
{{/usCountry}}Experts working at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) wanted to make a fun video and select a cat clip considering how people love watching content related to kitties. Also, there is a historic link. “Beginning in 1928, a small statue of the popular cartoon character Felix the Cat was featured in television test broadcast transmissions,” NASA shared.
Take a look at the NASA post here:
The post was shared a few hours ago. Since then, it has collected nearly 7.7 lakh views. The post has further accumulated more than 3,400 likes. People posted varied comments while showing their reactions.
Here’s how X users react to NASA’s cat video:
“Wow. Very good,” wrote an X user. “This is so adorable,” posted another. “Incredible milestone! Taters is now a space pioneer,” shared a third. “Best experiment,” joined fourth. “I can’t tell you how much I love this,” added a fifth.