But the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment is carrying out a mission of its own during the first two years of the journey.
"One of the goals is to demonstrate the ability to transmit broadband video across millions of miles. Nothing on Psyche generates video data, so we usually send packets of randomly generated test data," said Bill Klipstein, DSOC project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement.
"But to make this significant event more memorable, we decided to work with designers at JPL to create a fun video, which captures the essence of the demo as part of the Psyche mission."
'Everyone loves Taters'
The DSOC team collaborated with the creators at JPL's in-house DesignLab when determining which video they wanted to test across deep space.
The video, which was uploaded to DSOC before the Psyche launch, also includes a graphics overlay that showcases Psyche's orbital path, the Palomar telescope dome and Taters' color, breed and heart rate.
"Despite transmitting from millions of miles away, it was able to send the video faster than most broadband internet connections," said Ryan Rogalin, DSOC receiver electronics lead at JPL, in a statement.
"In fact, after receiving the video at Palomar, it was sent to JPL over the internet, and that connection was slower than the signal coming from deep space. JPL's DesignLab did an amazing job helping us showcase this technology — everyone loves Taters."
Apart from the broad popularity of cat videos and memes, the decision to include a cat video for DSOC's milestone is also a nod to broadcast history. A statuette of the Felix the Cat cartoon was used in television test broadcast transmissions beginning in 1928, according to NASA.
The laser experiment's latest successful test comes after DSOC's milestone on November 14 achieving what engineers called "first light," the feat of successfully sending and receiving its first data. Since then, the tech demo has only improved, showcasing capabilities like improved pointing accuracy that's so essential when sending laser messages from space to Earth.
The laser's fast data downlink speeds are comparable to broadband internet, and the DSOC team recently downloaded 1.3 terabits of data in one evening — comparable to the 1.2 terabits sent back by NASA's Magellan mission to Venus over the course of four years in the 1990s.
"When we achieved first light, we were excited, but also cautious. This is a new technology, and we are experimenting with how it works," said Ken Andrews, project flight operations lead at JPL, in a statement. "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."
