The video signal took 101 seconds to reach Earth and was sent at the system’s maximum data rate of 267 Mbps.
The Psyche instrument emitted a coded near-infrared signal to the Hale Telescope at the California Institute of Technology’s Palomar Observatory. Each frame of looped video was then sent to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the video was played back in real time.
In other words, the new laser technology now makes it possible to literally stream from deep space – at the time of transmission, the probe was about 80 times the distance from Earth to the moon.
NASA deputy administrator Pam Melroy said that this achievement is important for future research and scientific purposes during interplanetary missions. The only pity is that Psyche itself is not capable of recording video, so it transmits random or pre-prepared data sets for testing.
