October 20, 2016 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold. Like Tuesday, we taped two 18 minute segments, the one below that aired tonight, and the second which will air tomorrow. Tonight’s podcast focused on discussing the problems experienced by Juno and Schiaparelli.
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.
Embedded below the fold. Like Tuesday, we taped two 18 minute segments, the one below that aired tonight, and the second which will air tomorrow. Tonight’s podcast focused on discussing the problems experienced by Juno and Schiaparelli.
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.
If Schiaparelli hit the ground a minute too early, maybe because its parachute wasn’t deployed or deployed too early and tangled up, then it wouldn’t be where expected when Opportunity tried to image it.
Bad days for space flight with ExoMars and Juno both at somewhat reduced science and Falcon 9 exploding. But I do think that Juno will get almost as good science in this orbit too, if it stays alive long enough. And manages to turn on the instruments during the close flybys. I suspect that this two months orbit was designed with this scenario in mind. Maybe it will stay in it for upwards a year until they are satisfied with the data it has collected, before they dare take the risk to fire the engine to go into the two week orbit. It doesn’t look so bad to me, unless that safe mode is the symptom another problem.
Earlier this year Hitomi, an X-ray space telescope, spun itself to pieces, faster and faster until the solar panels were ripped off by centrifugal forces, 7 weeks after launch because the inertia navigation system failed and the star finding navigation system hadn’t been activated yet. It “thought” it was spinning when it wasn’t and autonomously tried to despin. Too bad, it would’ve given valuable data about dark matter and black holes among other things (they surprisingly discovered that even comets emit x-rays just a few years ago, x-ray telescoping is hard and not yet well explored). Still, it did get decisive data during that short time. I think that even after a single flyby with the instruments on, Juno would get the bulk of the intended science done.
Dear Mr. Zimmerman,
I found this article. It may of interest for you for a new blog entry.
https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2016/07/americas-economy-is-cartelized-corrupt-and-anti-competitive
What happened to the second part?
Willi: Well, I’ve been doing Batchelor appearances now for more than 10 years, and have been taping appearances with him now for five years. This appears to be the very first time that one of the appearances I taped didn’t make it on air. At least so far. None of the material was super time sensitive, so it could still run, though with each day the chances go down.
Willi–
thanks for spotting that. Thought I had downloaded the 2nd part…
Mr. Z;
Pivoting slightly– caught the last 1/2 of The Midnight Ocean show last night & am downloading the whole thing today. It was really good!
For the YouTube stream, they did a nice job with scrolling through (displaying) your book covers, and the whole show is on-line at their various platforms.
(We ab-so-lutely, have to get you recruited as the Science-Correspondent for Crowder when he goes daily! I’m convinced they would love you, and am making inquiries.)
Totally off topic; did you have to join SAG/AFTRA to work on Films?– I actually read the credits on films, I know what a Key Grip does, but what does the “Best Boy,” do? (Sounds “sexist,” (HA) is there a corresponding “Best Girl?”)
Wayne: SAG is the union for actors. No requirement to join if you work behind the camera. AFTRA is the actors’ union for television with similar membership rules.
None of this really mattered, however, because for most of my film career I generally worked on non-union films. No one on these productions belonged to any union. When I was a producer I also never hired any Teamsters (the union thugs who drive the vehicles). Most non-union producers would make a deal with the Teamsters union to hire one or two drivers in order to placate the union and prevent them from committing sabotage. These drivers would generally be paid more than everyone else, and do nothing more than drive a vehicle. I refused to do this and, despite making dozens of low budget features in a union town like New York for almost two decades, never had any problems.
A best boy works under the gaffer, who in turn works for the Director of Photography (DP). Both are part of the lighting department, setting up lights and running the electrical equipment to power them.
Thank you. >very (extremely) cool!