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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.

 

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December 21, 2016 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast

Embedded below the fold. We spent some time talking about the James Webb Space Telescope, and the terrifying possibility that it might not work.

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

  • Hi Bob,

    great show, is there a link to the chinese images from the moon? thanks.

  • StarGazer: Do a search on Behind the Black for Chang’e-3. The most recent post gives a link to a story that provides that link.

  • James Fincannon

    Bob,
    You stated that the James Webb Telescope would be in the eclipse of the Earth at the Lagrange Point. This cannot be true. For one thing, the telescope is solar powered and it would be difficult to gather the 2 kW of power from the Sun if the spacecraft we sitting in the eclipse all the time. Also, a spacecraft at the Lagrange Point must orbit it. Finally, it has a “Sunshield” which would not be necessary if it sat in an eclipse all the time.

    http://jwst.nasa.gov/comparison.html
    “At the L2 point Webb’s solar shield will block the light from the Sun, Earth, and Moon. This will help Webb stay cool, which is very important for an infrared telescope. As the Earth orbits the Sun, Webb will orbit with it – but stay fixed in the same spot with relation to the Earth and the Sun, as shown in the diagram to the left. Actually, satellites orbit around the L2 point, as you can see in the diagram – they don’t stay completely motionless at a fixed spot.”

  • James: Ah, thank you. You are right.

    I do remember however hearing or reading somewhere that the reason they were aiming for the Lagrange point a million miles farther from the sun was to use the Earth’s shadow to block the Sun’s light. As you note, this really makes no sense since they need the sun to power the spacecraft.

    I wonder where I heard this, and why. Could it be they are using the Earth’s shadow during the trip out to cool the spacecraft?

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