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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five 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. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

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A new Google project proposes to put 180 satellites in orbit to provide worldwide internet access.

The competition heats up: A new Google project proposes to put 180 satellites in orbit to provide worldwide internet access.

The details remain vague, but if this is true, and we have every reason to consider it likely, the demand for launch services just went up significantly, especially since the report says that these Google satellites will orbit “at lower altitudes than traditional satellites.” If that is the case they will have to be replaced more frequently.

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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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

4 comments

  • Rod

    The satellites will need to be replaced OR refueled more often. This is a business opportunity for an orbital servicing vehicle. Perhaps a Dragon V2 vehicles loaded with fuel tanks that will rendezvous with several satellites, refuel and go on to the next–I would suppose that there would be more than one satellite in the same orbital plane. Somebody should do a business plan.

  • Pzatchok

    The satellites are going to be very very low.

    So low in fact that they will never have a stable or permanent orbit.

    They will be disposable in fact.. Think of it as a high powered WiFi network.

    Standard satellites could provide network access but since they are placed so high in permanent orbits the lag time would be ridiculous.

    By bringing the network closer to the target you remove 90% of the lag time.

    It will be free but it will not be 3G fast. And the ads to pay for it will make the new users cry.

    Seriously. They plan on paying for this by selling ad space. More pop-ups. Directed to whom?
    The first world users who are already paying their way onto the internet?
    Or do they hope to sell things to people in central Africa and upper Mongolia? I’m not sure exactly how many cooking pots and yurts they can sell by internet? Imagine the shipping costs for those things alone. 1000 mile shipping into the outback of Australia.
    OHHH. Now I know were they plan to use drones to ship stuff.

  • Pzatchok

    Sorry I was totally wrong.

    I was thinking of something entirely different.

    But the service life of one of their satellites is expected to be around 10 years.
    I guess you don’t need much more considering the advancement in technology in that time. They will want to upgrade the system by then.

  • ken anthony

    Expect balloons to compete.

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