To read this post please scroll down.

 

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.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it 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.


Chang’e-4 successfully lands on far side of Moon

The new colonial movement: China’s Chang’e-4 lander/rover has successfully landed on far side of Moon.

Early reports of a successful landing sparked confusion after state-run media China Daily and CGTN deleted tweets celebrating the mission. China Daily’s tweet said: ‘“China’s Chang’e 4 landed on the moon’s far side, inaugurating a new chapter in mankind’s lunar exploration history.”

Official confirmation of the landing came two hours later via state broadcaster CCTV, which said the lunar explorer had touched down at 10.26am (2.26am GMT). The Communist party-owned Global Times also said the probe had “successfully made the first-ever soft landing” on the far side of the moon.

No reason has been given for the deletion of the tweets, though I suspect they did so because they were simply premature.

Update: More information here, including images.

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

11 comments

  • wayne

    So, when do they claim they now own & control, the far side of the Moon?

  • Edward_2

    I wonder how the rover is powered. No sunlight on the dark side of the moon to charge batteries.

    Nuclear? Will the anti-nuclear activists get as crazed with China as they did when Cassini-Huygens was launched by the US?

  • Jim Davis

    No sunlight on the dark side of the moon to charge batteries.

    You’re joking, right?

  • Edward_2: The far side of the Moon receives as much sunlight as the near side. The term “dark side” comes from a time before the space age, when it was dark because the human race had never seen it, and had no way to see it.

  • Captain Emeritus

    In 2004, the Chi-Coms released the sci-fi movie “Star Appeal”, starring
    Wan hung Low.
    It has just been leaked that a full scale model of Chang’E 4 was placed on the reconstructed set, the scene of a barren moon scape, and is part of a giant Chi-Com hoax to fake the landing.
    This, confirmed by Mr. Sum tin Wong, third cousin (mother’s side) to the original movie’s producer, Dr Ho lee Chit.
    Developing…

  • Jay

    There is not much direct information about the power sources of the lander. Some of it is based on the previous Chang’e 3 spacecraft. It does have photovoltaics and a claimed RTG for power. Some sources say that it is not really an RTG, but a RHU (Radioisotope Heater Unit) for thermal management and a small thermal couple to get some power out.

  • wayne

    Captain Emeritus–
    Holy cow!

    ——-
    Do we have independent telemetry and radar verification, that this alleged lander, actually exists? These chinese communists, lie as much as our own fake Media.

    Sounds like a excellent job of running the Chroma-key compositing process. (“Green-screen.”)
    Plus, they’ll need time to fix any imperfections in post-production.

  • Roland

    Between Midnight and 2am EST on 01/03/19,
    I heard (sounded like) Alan Kasujja on BBC News Radio mentioned Chang’e-4 also contained
    “Silk Worm Eggs”.

    The Eggs are not listed as payload in the link below but another presenter had immediately laughed in the background at the report and exclaimed something similar to “Imagine how they’re gonna feel when they wake up!”.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46724727

    Excerpt from link above:
    “The lander also carried a container with six live species from Earth – cotton, rapeseed, potato, fruit fly, yeast and arabidopsis (a flowering plant) – to try to form a mini biosphere.”

  • wodun

    Does anyone notice something familiar about the logo in the top left corner? Apparently China isn’t content with stealing personal, business, and technical information from us, they also have to steal the Star Trek Federation logo.

    It is cool that China landed another rover on the Moon. One would hope this would wake Americans up a bit but it looks like the media is too scared that putting this event in context would empower Trump and weaken the Democrats.

    I remember that not so long ago that if you suggested China was capable of something like this you would be mocked as having a case of the Red Scare or being a stupid racist because you didn’t recognize how incapable the Chinese are.

  • wayne

    wodun–
    Good stuff.

    China’s “Orwellian Nonsense”
    https://youtu.be/L51vxD7RwdY
    8:35

Leave a Reply

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