Cat Steals the Show in Video Sent by Laser from Space

2023-12-21 11:35:30来源：网络

Cat Steals the Show in Video Sent by Laser from Space

从太空激光发送的视频中，猫咪抢镜成为焦点

【听力音频】

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　　By Gregory Stachel

　　20 December 2023

　　The U.S. space agency says an orange cat named Taters is the star of the first video sent by laser from deep space.

　　NASA's Psyche spacecraft sent the 15-second video to Earth from 30 million kilometers in space. The video shows Taters as he chases a red laser light.

　　It took less than two minutes for the video to reach Caltech's Palomar Observatory. The video quality is called ultra high-definition. It was sent at the test system's maximum rate of 267 megabits per second.

　　NASA loaded the video into Psyche's laser communication experiment before launching the spacecraft to visit a rare metal asteroid in October. The mission team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, decided to use an employee's three-year-old cat.

　　The video was sent to Earth on December 11 and was released by NASA this week. The test sent the video faster than most internet connections here on Earth, said project leader Ryan Rogalin.

　　NASA wants to improve communications from deep space as it prepares efforts to send astronauts to the moon and possibly to the planet Mars. The laser test is meant to send data at rates up to 100 times greater than the radio systems currently used by spacecraft far from Earth.

　　More tests are planned as Psyche heads towards the main area of asteroids between the planets Mars and Jupiter. But Taters will not be making anymore appearances, JPL said.

　　Joby Harris is an art director in JPL's DesignLab. He could not be any happier, but he does not want his cat's new public attention to go to his head.

　　"I'm celebrating his spotlight with him but making sure he keeps his paws on the carpet," Harris said in an email Tuesday.

　　I'm Jill Robbins.

　　Marcia Dunn reported this story for The Associated Press. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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　　作者：Gregory Stachel

　　2023年12月20日

　　美国航天局表示，一只名叫Taters的橙色猫咪成为了从深空通过激光发送的第一个视频的主角。

　　NASA的Psyche航天器从距离地球3000万公里的太空中向地球发送了这段15秒的视频。视频中，Taters正在追逐一个红色的激光光点。

　　这段视频在不到两分钟的时间内就到达了加州理工学院的帕洛马天文台。视频的质量被称为超高清。它以测试系统的最高速率267兆比特每秒发送。

　　在今年10月向一颗稀有金属小行星发射探测器之前，NASA已经将这段视频加载到了Psyche的激光通信实验中。位于加利福尼亚州帕萨迪纳的NASA喷气推进实验室（JPL）的任务团队决定使用一名员工的三岁猫咪。

　　这段视频在12月11日发送到地球，并在本周由NASA发布。项目负责人Ryan Rogalin表示，这次测试发送的视频速度比地球上大多数的互联网连接还要快。

　　NASA希望在准备将宇航员送往月球，甚至可能是火星的过程中，改善来自深空的通信。这次激光测试旨在以比目前远离地球的航天器使用的无线电系统高出100倍的速率发送数据。