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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.

 

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Alien world

Meridiani Planum
So what is it we are looking at in the image above? I have reduced the resolution slightly to fit it here, but you can see the full resolution image by clicking on the picture.

Is it a marble or granite kitchen counter? Nah, the surface is too rough.

Maybe it’s a modern abstract painting that we can find hanging in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Nah, it has too much style and depth. Abstract art is much more shallow and empty of content.

Could it be a close-up of a just-opened container of berry-vanilla ice cream, the different flavors swirling and intertwined to enhance the eating experience? No, somehow it looks too gritty for ice cream.

No, what we are looking at is close-up of exposed bedrock in an area on Mars called Meridiani Planum. From the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter website:

The Opportunity rover has spent 13 years exploring a small region of Meridiani Planum which has a rather ordinary appearance.

Other portions of Meridiani are much more interesting, with well-exposed layered bedrock eroded into strange patterns.

Opportunity's travels

Meridanii Planum is located on the equator due east of the giant canyons of Valles Marineris. It is a subsection region inside Arabia Terra, the largest of the transition zones between the lower elevation vast plains of the northern hemisphere and the higher elevation crater southern highlands.

The black cross in the image to the right shows where this picture was taken relative to the area that Opportunity has been exploring. Unfortunately, I do not have a scale for the image, but the difference in longitude between the image above and the area of Opportunity’s travels is about 10 degrees, at the equator. I searched the web but was unable to find a quick way to convert this to miles. Hopefully some of my very educated readers can figure it out.

They picked Opportunity’s landing site for its relatively flat terrain to ease the rover’s travels. Yet, in that same region is weird and very inexplicable geology as shown above.

Mars is a big place. It is also an alien place. Figuring out its geology will take several lifetimes of geologists, living on the planet.

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

7 comments

  • Jim Davis

    Abstract art is much more shallow and empty of content.

    There is a show on National Geographic called “Genius” which covers the life of a genius each season. The first season covered Einstein. The current season covers Picasso. I just do not get why Picasso is considered a genius.

  • Laurie

    Hat tip to the Creator …

    … but I still say it looks like a lab experiment left unattended too long …

  • Ted

    It looks like something I washed down the disposal after being in the frig WAAAAY too long.

  • Michael Dean Miller

    .

    Thirteen years of operation from a Rover designed for a 90 day mission?

    Well done, JPL, well done.

    .

  • Andi

    You did ask, so here goes…

    Al Gore’s Amazing Internet reports that the diameter of Mars is 6792 km, or 4220 miles at the equator

    4220 * 3.14159 = 13258 miles circumference

    13258 * 10/360 = 368 miles in 10 degrees longitude at the equator

  • Andi: Thank you. That’s a decent estimate for this one circumstance, and is helpful.

  • Lee S

    @ Jim Davis, Picasso was a genuine artistic genius…. if you google his early work you will see the “regular” art of a true master….. it was only after proving his chops in the art world he moved on to develop cubism… which like it or hate it, changed the art landscape for ever…. the guy genuinely looked outside the box…

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