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Readers!

 

It is now July, time once again to celebrate the start of this webpage in 2010 with my annual July fund-raising campaign.

 

This year I celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black. During that time I have done more than 33,000 posts, mostly covering the global space industry and the related planetary and astronomical science that comes from it. Along the way I have also felt compelled as a free American citizen to regularly post my thoughts on the politics and culture of the time, partly because I think it is important for free Americans to do so, and partly because those politics and that culture have a direct impact on the future of our civilization and its on-going efforts to explore and eventually colonize the solar system.

 

You can’t understand one without understanding the other.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent independent analysis you don’t find elsewhere. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn’t influenced by donations by established companies or political movements. 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
 
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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.


Caving in Nevada

I finally have an hour free here in Nevada.

For the past three days we have been intensely hiking up mountains over a vast area of Nevada. The goal has been to locate and map caves for the Forest Service in some of the most remote areas of the state. So far we have focused on mapping known caves, putting the possible discoveries aside for later work.

Jason Knight and Anthony Smith

The hiking has been spectacular, though very exhausting. For example, one cave was located only about 3,500 feet from where we parked our cars. The problem was that it also was about 1,800 feet above us in elevation. Thus, we found ourselves going up hill at probably the steepest angle for any hike I have ever done. Plus, the cave was located at about 8.600 elevation, so you were doing this hiking at high elevation with its thin atmosphere. To top it off, much of the hike was up a scree slope, made up of loose pebbles and rocks that would slide down one foot for every foot you climbed. The only way to manage it was to focus on one step at a time, and take many rests.

To put it mildly, it was a slow trip, taking about two and a half hours just to reach the cave entrance.

The cave at the top was worth it, however. After a rappelling down a 40 foot pit, we entered a 600 foot long cave with many formations. The register in the cave showed that the last cavers to visit this remote place had been there in 2009, with the previous visitors from 2002.

Other caves were less challenging to reach, but also less interesting. In the picture on the right Jason Knight (with Anthony Smith to the left) is about to poke his head into a crack that ended up only going about two body lengths. We had been more hopeful the cave would go farther, but alas, that is how things go sometimes.

I’ll have more to say after I get back. Right now I have to go to down for breakfast before heading out again.

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

2 comments

  • Tim

    And you used to complain about the steps at the Twelfth! Looks like fun!

  • Hi Tim,

    I don’t remember complaining about the steps at the Twelfth. What I remember was complaining about was the fact that it seemed to rain almost every Wednesday night, and that in the months of December, January, and February my gun would often not work because it was too damn cold! :)

    Say hi to all at the range. Both Diane and I miss you all.

    Bob

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