Evan Gough, Author at Universe Today

October 23, 2019October 23, 2019 by Evan Gough

A Private Company in China Plans to Launch Reusable Rockets by 2021

Hyperbola-2 is Chinese company i-Space's second rocket design, and China's first reusable rocket. Image Credit: i-Space.

A Chinese company is planning to launch a rocket with a reusable booster in 2021. The company is called i-Space, and the rocket is called Hyperbola-2. They’ve already developed and launched another rocket, called Hyperbola.

October 23, 2019October 23, 2019 by Evan Gough

Boeing and Airstream Show off Their New Astronaut Transport Vehicle: the Astrovan II

Airstream's Astrovan II will transport astronauts to the launchpad for commercial crew launches aboard Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. Astrovan 2 is the successor to the original Astrovan that carried Shuttle astronauts. Credit: Airstream

When it comes to brand recognition, Airstream‘s got game. Their silver, space-age looking travel trailers and touring coaches are iconic. Almost everyone recognizes their riveted aluminum bodies.

October 23, 2019October 29, 2019 by Evan Gough

James Webb Tests its Sun-Shield. So Far, So Good.

During a recent test, engineers and technicians fully deployed all five layers of the James Webb Space Telescopes sun-shield. Image Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

Rigorous testing is at the heart of any successful space mission. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be a million miles away when it deploys its mission-critical sun-shield, and if it doesn’t function as planned, that’s it. Game over.

October 22, 2019October 22, 2019 by Evan Gough

A NASA Panel Says We Don’t Need to be so Careful About Infecting Other Worlds

This artist's concept depicts NASA's Mars 2020 rover exploring Mars. Credit: NASA

It’s time to update the rules. That’s the conclusion of a panel that examined NASA’s rules for planetary protection. It was smart, at the dawn of the space age, to think about how we might inadvertently pollute other worlds with Earthly microbes as we explore the Solar System. But now that we know a lot more than we did back then, the rules don’t fit.

October 21, 2019October 21, 2019 by Evan Gough

Time-lapse Captured from the International Space Station

Time lapse photography from astronaut Christina Koch aboard the ISS. Image Credit: ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit.

400 photos. 11 minutes. That’s what it took to create this time-lapse of the Earth and stars as the International Space Station over Namibia toward the Red Sea. NASA astronaut Christina Koch captured these images.

October 21, 2019October 21, 2019 by Evan Gough

How Long is a Day on Venus? Astronomers Make Their Best Measurement Yet

A radar image of the surface of Venus showing one of the surface features used to measure a revised value for the length of the Venusian day. Image Credit: Campbell et al., 2019

There’s a problem with Venus. We don’t know how fast it rotates. For a space-faring civilization like ours, that’s a problem.

Measuring the length of day, or rotation rate, of most bodies is pretty straightforward. Mark a prominent surface feature and time how long it takes to rotate 360 degrees. But Venus is blanketed in thick clouds. Those clouds give it its reflectivity, and make it bright and noticeable in the sky, but they make it hard to measure Venus’ day length.

October 18, 2019October 18, 2019 by Evan Gough

Success! NASA Confirms the Mole is Working Again.

The scoop on InSight's instrument arm exerting pressure on the Mole. This may supply the necessary friction to get the Mole going again. Image Credit: NASA/DLR

After months of setbacks, NASA says that the InSight Lander’s Mole is working again.

InSight landed on Mars on Nov. 26 2018 in Elysium Planitia. Its mission is to study the interior of the planet, to learn about how Mars and other rocky planets formed. InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport) is a NASA mission with other partners, including the DLR (German Aerospace Center.)

October 18, 2019October 18, 2019 by Evan Gough

There’s the Curiosity Rover, On the Move, Seen from Space

MSL Curiosity as imaged by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image Credit: NASA/CalTech-JPL

If the Curiosity rover was paranoid, would it feel like it was being watched? Well, it is being watched, by its brother in orbit, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The MRO watched Curiosity as it travelled through the ‘Clay-Bearing Unit‘ in Gale Crater, during June and July, 2019.

October 17, 2019October 17, 2019 by Evan Gough

Here’s the Picture We’ve Been Waiting for. Hubble’s Photo of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

A Hubble image of comet 2I/Borisov speeding through our Solar System. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)

Leave it up to the good ole Hubble Space Telescope. The workhorse telescope has given us a photo of the new interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. Take that, fancy new telescopes.

October 17, 2019October 17, 2019 by Evan Gough

NASA’s New Lunar Spacesuit is Going to be a Lot More Comfortable for Astronauts

Artist's illustration of the new spacesuit NASA is designing for Artemis astronauts. It's called the xEMU,, or Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit. Image Credit: NASA

NASA is developing new spacesuits for their Artemis program. The new suits will give the astronauts greater mobility, will be safer, and will be designed from the ground up to fit women.