NASA beams cat video 19 million miles from deep space to Earth

NASA has beamed a high-definition video of a cat from deep space to Earth via a laser.

The 15-second video of a cat called Taters chasing a laser beam was streamed to Earth earlier this month.

Footage of the orange fur-ball had to travel 19 million miles, which is around 80 times the distance from Earth to the Moon.

It was transmitted to Earth from a flight laser transceiver as part of the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment, or DSOC.

It is hoped the technology could one day be used to quickly transmit data, imagery and videos as humans push the limits of space exploration by venturing to places like Mars.

“This accomplishment underscores our commitment to advancing optical communications as a key element to meeting our future data transmission needs,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said in a statement.

“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.”

The space agency's Deep Space Optical Communications team added the cat video to the Psyche probe, which set off in October on a six-year mission to visit an asteroid.

“When we achieved first light, we were excited, but also cautious," said Ken Andrews, project flight operations lead at JPL, in a statement.

"This is a new technology, and we are experimenting with how it works.

“But now, with the help of our Psyche colleagues, we are getting used to working with the system and can lock onto the spacecraft and ground terminals for longer than we could previously.

"We are learning something new during each checkout," Mr Andrews added.

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