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Readers!

 

The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

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Mars rover update: September 20, 2016

Opportunity comes first this time because it actually is more interesting.

Opportunity

For the overall context of Opportunity’s travels at Endeavour Crater, see this post, Opportunity’s future travels on Mars.

Having several choices on where to head, the Opportunity science team this week chose took what looks like the most daring route, heading almost due east towards the floor of Endeavour Crater. In fact, a review of their route and the images that the rover continues to take suggests that the panorama I created last week looked almost due east, not to the southeast as I had guessed. I have amended the most recent overhead traverse image, cropped and reduced below, to show what I now think that panorama was showing.

Sol 4493 traverse map

I will readily admit that I am unsure about this. The panorama appears to show four mounds, so that is what I am including. Because it is difficult to judge scale in these images (no scale bar is provided), I think I have been misjudging distances and mound sizes. The panorama shows objects that are farther away and look larger in the overhead traverse image.

This traverse map only shows us the rover’s travels through Sol 4493. The most recent images from Opportunity are dated Sol 4499. During that Martian week it appears the rover has crept closer to the brighter of the two mounds on the hillside before it. Below is a panorama I have created from images taken on Sol 4498, showing this.

Sol 4498 panorama

I have not indicated on the traverse map what this panorama is seeing because I am not sure which mound it is aimed at. I suspect it is second mound from the bottom, but until we have more information on the rover’s actual route since Sol 4493 it is hard to tell. What I can say without doubt is that the rover science team has now taken Opportunity much farther into Endeavour Crater than they had during their exploration of Marathon Valley. I now suspect that they want to explore the region up to the cliff face to the east, which would put them at the inside edge of the crater’s rim and give them ample opportunities (no pun intended) to compare it to the already studied outside edge.

Curiosity

For the overall context of Curiosity’s travels, see this post, Pinpointing Curiosity’s location in Gale Crater.

Curiosity's sample retrieval system

Since last week’s update Curiosity has remained positioned near the southernmost butte of the Murray Buttes area. They have been attempting to drill into a bright feature at the base of this butte, but have had drill issues. The first drill attempt “did not complete as expected.” The second drill attempt completed the drill hole, but then there “was a timing issue during sample manipulation.” (See this page for these updates.) None of these issues appear to be serious technical problems, merely the day-to-day challenges of drilling holes remotely with a robot on another planet millions of miles away. It would be nice however if the scientists making the reports could be clearer about what they mean.

The image on the right, cropped and reduced, provides a nice view of Curiosity’s sampling capture system, including its sieve used to sift out the right sized samples.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

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