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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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Vast unveils its proposed full space station concept

Haven-2
Haven-2 station once completed

After revealing the layout planned for its first single module space station dubbed Haven-1 last week, the startup Vast today unveiled its proposed full space station concept, dubbed Haven-2.

The graphic to the right is a screen capture from the video describing the step-by-step assembly of this larger station. Initially it will be comprised of four modules, linked together in a straight line. This confirguration is aimed at winning a space station contract from NASA when it announces the winners in the second phase of its commercial space station program in mid-2026. If picked, Vast then intends in the expand that four-module station to the eight modules illustrated in the graphic.

Between 2030 and 2032, Vast will add a larger 7m diameter core module and four more Haven-2 modules, fully realizing the next-generation commercial space station capable of meeting the needs of international partners, NASA, commercial researchers & manufacturers, and private astronauts.

Key features of the completed station include an unprecedented 3.8m diameter cupola window, external payload hosting capabilities, a robotic arm, visiting vehicle berthing capabilities, external payload airlock, and an extravehicular activity (EVA) airlock to support customers’ needs. Each module will also feature two Haven-1-like 1.1m dome windows, totaling 16 windows by 2032.

Vast’s design is projected to surpass all other proposed on-orbit space stations in terms of volume, functionality, and operational efficiency.

Vast’s overall plan is quite ambitious, but well thought out. If all goes as planned, just as NASA is about to decide on the winners in phase 2 of its space station program, Vast plans to launch in 2026 its Haven-1 station and immediately fly a manned 30-day mission to it, using SpaceX rockets and Dragon capsules. If successful, that private mission will do wonders in convincing NASA to pick Vast.

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

9 comments

  • Mike Borgelt

    That looks like it could be spun up for spin gravity but they haven’t arranged the module interiors correctly.

  • Ray Van Dune

    Just an impression, but the hub and the module connections don’t appear substantial enough for handling a G-load of one G or near it.

    Another thing is there isn’t an obvious provision for a non-rotating component. Yes, I saw “2001”, but not sure spinning the docking ship is the answer!

  • Patrick Underwood

    They do have plans for rotating stations.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F8lnfDEMkg

  • AO1

    Ray Van Dune

    They talk of zero-g, moon & mars g’s so I don’t think they’re looking at 1 g. Just the lower level g’s for science.

  • Patrick Underwood

    That’s exactly what they should do. We have data for 0g and 1g+, and nothing in between, other than anecdotal evidence from Apollo that humans can work a lot more naturally in partial g than they can in microgravity. (Compare the freewheeling moonwalks with the tedious and highly choreographed ISS EVAs. Humans are evolved or designed, take your pick, for gravity!)

  • Ray Van Dune

    By the way, when I saw “2001”, I noticed that the view of the docking ship from the rotating space station was wrong. If the ship was off-axis at all it would have moved in a circle, not the way it did.

    There was (at least) one other glaring error. Guesses?

  • M. Murcek

    A giant cross floating in space above the earth will drive the left into a case of the howling fantods.

  • Ray Van Dune

    There was an actual proposal by the EU to have a ring of bright satellites that looked like their flag. Not sure what happened to it.

  • M. Murcek opined

    “A giant cross floating in space above the earth will drive the left into a case of the howling fantods.”

    Not so many of the Left in the Southern Hemisphere, then?

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