August 12, 2016 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold. Commercial space and planetary science, as usual, were the topics, with a focus on Curiosity’s upcoming journey (which shall get an update by tomorrow at the latest).
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Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Embedded below the fold. Commercial space and planetary science, as usual, were the topics, with a focus on Curiosity’s upcoming journey (which shall get an update by tomorrow at the latest).
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
The Russians don’t need to sell the third seat to the ISS to a “tourist”. Foreign space agencies are likely interested buyers too. They have trained astronauts waiting. The US pays $70 million per seat. Space tourists have paid $20 to $40 million, according to Wiki.
Localfluff said;
“Foreign space agencies are likely interested buyers too. They have trained astronauts waiting.”
I immediately thought of the Chinese. But the Iranians or the North Koreans might be interested. Just so long as they don’t want to skip the training on how to land. (I know what the word for “divine wind” is in Japanese, what is it in Farsi?)
Anyway, the Russians won’t leave the third Soyuz seat empty to make it more comfortable for the remaining two, or to save kerosene, they’ve got plenty of that.
– – – – –
Curiosity will now travel between the “buttes” on Mars.
Since I don’t understand much English, I look such words up. “Butte” comes from the, thanks to Hollywood, internationally more familiar meaning of “butt”. Which I suppose is not what is meant here. But(!) a dictionary gives it a funny etymology:
“Thick end”. “Remainder of a smoked cigarette”. “Liquor barrel”. “Target of a joke”. “Hit with the head”.
And of course, confusing English is the fault of Scandinavian influence:
(They’ve really found water and life on Mars this time!)
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=butte&allowed_in_frame=0
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=butt&allowed_in_frame=0
You see, this is a problem for international cooperation in space.
Emily Lakdawalla has her 4 first minutes about these, ehum, topological features, on the Planetary Radio today:
http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2016/0815-titan-canyons-hayes.html
LocalFluff–
Get me a tourist Visa to your homeland, and I’ll come face slap you personally, academically of course!
[1805, American English, from French butte, from Old French but “mound, knoll.”]
:)
“Bogart Gets Rough”
https://youtu.be/B76s0SF47xw
Totally tangential–
Look up the phrase, “A boodle of queer.”
(Means– counterfeit money. Watch the movie “Mister 880.”)
And for Trump– The phrase is “as queer as a three dollar bill.” (but I don’t know if we are allowed to say that any more…)
No, Wayne. Butte comes from Old Swedish “but” = “flatfish”. Probably Danish Vikings who brought this into English when they ruled England, who then in turn colonized America.
Two dollar bills are for real. “He” habitually adds one or two or more to every number he mentions, so from January 21th all three and four dollar bills will have to be accepted as payment by executive order. “He” will solve the US debt crises, and I think it will work better (for the US) than any other option, by replacing USD with TRD (exchange only allowed for selected friends). Beautiful orange dollar bills with a pretty smiling face on them, and the printed text:
“It’s a rigged system. But that’s okay, because now I’m the one who’s rigging it!”
And on the coins:
– “Heads, Trump wins.”
And on the other side:
– “Tails, Trump wins again!”
Localfluff: Danish Vikings never ruled England in total, but conquered some areas at the North-west coast of British isle and build there even quite a number of villages/settlements in time period around 700-1000 b.c..
Alex,
Well, they ruled your colonizers little island enough to teach you new words like “law” and “king”.
And “dead reckoning” which is a funny rime of the Danish term for the same thing. (You measure your speed by throwing an English slave off board and see how fast it tries to swim relative to the ship). Not really applicable for space travel, though. Even Shakespeare had to reference Denmark in Hamlet 600 years later. At the same time as the astrologer Johannis Kepler founded astrophysics, based on the data observed by the Dane Tycho Brahe. A generation later Isaac Newton, the greatest Englishman of all times, founded his work on that beginning.