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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.

 

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.

 

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The eroding north wall of glacial-filled Harmakhis Valles

The north wall of Harmakhis Valles
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on February 8, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

We are looking at the 2,400-foot-high cliff, its lower walls clearly cracking horizontally as they sag downward, with other large sections higher up appearing to have been eroded away in larger pieces.

Yet, the ground below this cliff wall appears to have no debris piles, the kind you would expect below a landslide. Instead, that ground appears to be very glacial in nature, with many linear parallel lines suggesting layers.

The overview map below provides us the context, and an explanation as to where that debris has gone.

Overview map

The red dot on the overview map near the middle of Harmakhis Valles marks this location, the north wall of that meandering canyon. The canyon itself has been shown with numerous orbital pictures to be filled with a glacier flowing downhill into Hellas Basin.

At 39 degrees south latitude, this cliff is right in the middle of the mid-latitude bands where many glacial features are found on Mars, so it is not surprising that the canyon is glacial filled. A March 19, 2011 MRO context camera picture of this location, showing the entire canyon, makes very clear that glacier. It resembles remarkably many similar glaciers on Earth, such as the Concordia glacier in the Himalayas below the world’s second highest peak, K2.

So, that debris might have fallen from the cliff wall, but it landed on a glacier that, while not appearing active now, at one point in the past was flowing downhill. Over time that glacier carried that debris away.

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

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

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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.

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