Are you handling coronavirus lockdown like a champ and think you could take 8 additional moths of isolation? If so, NASA is willing to pay volunteers to eight months locked up in a simulated spacecraft on its way to Mars. One caveat: since it takes place in Moscow, Russia, you are required to speak both English and Russian to even be considered
It’s official, the sixth mission of the Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-6) is set to be launched on May 16 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida by the Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office in partnership with the U.S. Space Force. No details about the mission were mentioned, but it aims to test new systems in space and return them to Earth to help the U.S. more efficiently and effectively develop space capabilities necessary to maintain superiority in the space domain.
In the past, balloons were made from dried animal bladders, but now, they’re mostly all latex. They may not be exciting by themselves, but the process of making them is an entirely different story. To start things off, the latex is mixed with dye for 16 hours, and while that happens, balloon moldings are dipped in a chemical that attracts latex, then into the material itself.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope managed to capture stunning images of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) between April 20-23, 2020, giving us the clearest views yet of it disintegrating. The telescope managed to identify 30 fragments on April 20th, and then another 25 on April 23rd, all enveloped in a sunlight-swept tail of cometary dust.
Scientists have managed to create glow-in-the-dark plants using bioluminescent fungi to change the way they use caffeic acid. This is an important chemical to the process that lets certain fungi glow, but is also present in all plants, so by genetically converting them to caffeic acid for a compound called luciferin, they give of a stunning glow.