NASA’s latest technological breakthrough has not only advanced space communication but also brought a touch of home to the International Space Station (ISS). Using NASA’s first two-way, end-to-end laser relay system, pictures and videos of cherished pets have been transmitted through space at a rate of 1.2 gigabits per second—faster than most home internet speeds.

Pets in Space: A Heartwarming Experiment

NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Christina Koch, and Kjell Lindgren, along with other agency employees, submitted photos and videos of their pets for a unique journey to and from the ISS. This initiative allowed NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program to demonstrate the power of laser communications while testing out a new networking technique.

“The pet imagery campaign has been rewarding on multiple fronts for the ILLUMA-T, LCRD, and HDTN teams,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator and SCaN program manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Not only have they demonstrated how these technologies can play an essential role in enabling NASA’s future science and exploration missions, but it also provided a fun opportunity for the teams to ‘picture’ their pets assisting with this innovative demonstration.”

Inspired by “Taters the Cat”

This demonstration was inspired by “Taters the Cat,” an orange cat whose video was transmitted 19 million miles over laser links to the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) payload on the Psyche mission. LCRD, DSOC, and ILLUMA-T are three of NASA’s ongoing laser communications demonstrations aimed at proving the technology’s viability.

The Journey of Pet Images

The images and videos began their journey on a computer at a mission operations center in Las Cruces, New Mexico. From there, NASA routed the data to optical ground stations in California and Hawaii. Teams modulated the data onto infrared light signals, or lasers, and sent them to NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) located 22,000 miles above Earth in geosynchronous orbit. LCRD then relayed the data to ILLUMA-T (Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal), a payload currently mounted on the exterior of the space station.

The Advantages of Laser Communications

Since the inception of space exploration, NASA missions have relied on radio frequency communications to send data to and from space. Laser communications, also known as optical communications, employ infrared light instead of radio waves to transmit information. While both infrared and radio waves travel at the speed of light, infrared light can transfer more data in a single link due to its tighter wavelength, making it more efficient for science data transfer.

Overcoming Challenges with Delay Tolerant Networking

This demonstration also allowed NASA to test a new networking technique. When data is transmitted across thousands or even millions of miles in space, delays and potential disruptions are significant. To overcome this, NASA developed Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN), a suite of communications networking protocols that uses a “store-and-forward” process. This allows data to be forwarded as it is received or stored for future transmission if signals become disrupted in space.

To enable DTN at higher data rates, NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland developed High-Rate Delay Tolerant Networking (HDTN). This advanced implementation acts as a high-speed path for moving data between spacecraft and across communication systems, enabling data transfer at speeds up to four times faster than current DTN technology. This allows high-speed laser communication systems to utilize the “store-and-forward” capability of DTN.

Enhancing Space Communications

HDTN aggregates data from various sources, such as scientific instrumentation on the space station, and prepares it for transmission back to Earth. For the pet photo and video experiment, the content was routed using DTN protocols as it traveled from Earth to LCRD, to ILLUMA-T on the space station. Once there, an onboard HDTN payload demonstrated its ability to receive and reassemble the data into files.

This optimized DTN technology aims to enable a variety of communications services for NASA, from improving security through encryption and authentication to providing network routing of 4K high-definition multimedia and more. These capabilities are currently being tested on the space station with ILLUMA-T and LCRD.

Looking to the Future

As NASA’s Artemis campaign prepares to establish a sustainable presence on and around the Moon, SCaN will continue to develop groundbreaking communications technology to bring the scalability, reliability, and performance of Earth-based internet to space.

To learn more about laser communications, visit [NASA’s Laser Communications](https://go.nasa.gov/4az2ptB). To learn more about HDTN technology, visit [NASA’s HDTN Technology](https://go.nasa.gov/43VuV6n).

ILLUMA-T, LCRD, and HDTN are funded by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. LCRD and ILLUMA-T are managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The HDTN project is managed by NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The space station network is managed by NASA’s Johnson Space Center and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

By bridging the gap between Earth and space, NASA’s innovative laser relay system is not just a technological marvel but also a heartwarming reminder of the connections we cherish, no matter where we are in the universe.