Scroll down to read this post.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. 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.


LRO pinpoints Chang’e-4 landing site

LRO pinpointing Chang'e-4's location on Moon

By referencing the footage released by China of Chang’e-4’s descent onto the Moon, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) team has been able to pinpoint exactly where the lander touched down. The image on the right has been reduced slightly. Click on it to see it in full resolution.

The largest nearby crater to the lander is estimated to be about 80 feet across.

Because the images were in December 2018 before the lander’s arrival, they do not show it. However, the LRO team now knows exactly where to look when they take new pictures in the next few weeks. Moreover, this will allow them to monitor Yutu-2’s travels as it roves the surface over the coming months.

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

10 comments

  • Mr. Robert Zimmerman,
    I enjoy listening to you on the radio and always learn so much from your broadcasts. Please accept my End of Year gift to you of $2M, to be used @ your sole discretion, so that you may continue your Great work on Behind the Black+. We’ll talk later about maintenance support as well, if that is fine with you. Regards, Jean Marie Rickerson

  • Captain Emeritus

    $2M?
    What’s a $2M?

  • Andi

    I wish the news commentators would at least try and get close to the correct pronunciation of the lander. It grates on my ears to hear them pronounce it “Chang (rhyming with ‘bang’) eee (long e sound)”

    The closest to the actual is “Chang (pronouncing the ‘a’ as in ‘father’) – uhh”

    Intonations are a whole other matter, which I wouldn’t expect. But at least get the sounds close!

  • Andi: If the correct pronunciation is “Chang-a”, then why do the Chinese choose to spell it “Chang’e”? It was my impression that the Chinese phonetic system they adopted several years ago was more accurate than the British system created in the 1800s. This makes me question that.

  • Andi

    Hi Bob,

    The phonetic system “hanyu pinyin” (literally “Chinese language spelling (of) sounds” was created in the PRC in the 1950s. I don’t think it was intended to be English-accurate, as for example “xi” (as in “xi jin ping”) is more accurately represented in English as “hsheee “; rather the x is intended to represent the phonetic sound that has been in the Chinese phoneme collection for years, just using the Roman alphabet. Similarly with the “z” (as in “zhang”), it doesn’t sound anywhere close to “zee”.

    Some are close, e.g. “ping” is pronounced pretty much like it is spelled.

    Love this site, Bob! I come here every day for education and entertainment!

  • wayne

    So, is there independent verification this alleged device is actually on the Moon?

    Andi–
    Interesting stuff.
    –When we finally, inevitably, destroy the Chinese communist party, root & branch, we can go back to using “Peking” and “Mao” again, instead of the made-up Orwellian doublespeak.

    Pivoting:
    Chroma-Key/Green-screen software
    (for Mac & Windows)
    http://www.chromashop.com/

  • Lee S

    @ Wayne….
    I wouldn’t hold your breath…
    The Chinese current system of a communist/capitalist system seems to be working out for them… Of course they have landed on the far side… You don’t think every nation with a space interest is watching with intent? And would call them out if there was any doubt? ( The same argument I use with Apollo moon landing skeptics )
    And the democratic Republic of the USA is developing SLS… ( Imagine a head in hands emoji )
    Your only hope is that private enterprise puts footprints on Mars, because, while their robotic exploration is truly jaw dropping, the NASA human exploration effort is a joke…
    I would rather see NASA and the ESA get ahead in the race, but with China actually able to implement 5/10/20 year plans without those pesky democratic changes to said plans… My money is on China being the dominant player in manned space exploration within my lifetime.

  • wayne

    Lee–
    —of course I believe they are on the Moon, (but then again, they are Masters of Deceit.)
    Nothing “capitalist” about the Chinese communists!
    -I’d suggest looking up the concept of “state capitalism,” as expounded upon by Marx, Lenin, and Mao.
    In (very) brief: (excuse the rushed cut-n-paste job with no attribution.)

    “…. theory of state monopoly capitalism (also referred as stamocap) was initially a Marxist doctrine popularized after World War II. Lenin had claimed in 1916 that World War I had transformed laissez-faire capitalism into monopoly capitalism…”
    “….Lenin insists in “The State and Revolution” (1917) that state monopoly capitalism should not be confused with state socialism..”
    …… various theories and critiques of state capitalism, some of which existed before the 1917 October Revolution. The common themes among them identify that the workers do not meaningfully control the means of production and detect that commodity relations and production for profit still occur within state capitalism. In “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific” (1880), Friedrich Engels argued that state ownership does not do away with capitalism by itself, but rather would be the final stage of capitalism, consisting of ownership and management of large-scale production and communication by the bourgeois state. He argued that the tools for ending capitalism are found in state capitalism itself…..”

    “….From 1956 to the late 1970s, the Communist Party of China and their Maoist or anti-revisionist adherents around the world often described the Soviet Union as state capitalist, essentially using the accepted Marxist definition, albeit on a different basis and in reference to a different span of time from either the Trotskyists or the left-communists. Specifically, the Maoists and their descendants use the term state capitalism as part of their description of the style and politics of Nikita Khrushchev and his successors as well as to similar leaders and policies in other self-styled “socialist” states…”

  • Captain Emeritus

    Mr. Zimmerman,
    With the $2M gift from Rickerson, will the tip jar still be necessary??

  • Edward

    wayne asked: “So, is there independent verification this alleged device is actually on the Moon?

    From the LRO photograph and the 50-meter scale indicator, it looks like the resolution is enough to eventually verify that something has happened in that region. I expect that it will also be able to distinguish between lander and rover, but wheel tracks may not be visible for LRO.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *