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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.
 

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.


Dennis Tito’s project already has hundreds of volunteers.

Want to go to Mars? You better get in line. Dennis Tito’s project already has hundreds of volunteers.

I still have doubts whether this non-private company can pull this off by 2018, but only by 2018. Given a bit more time and research, the obstacles for sending two humans on a fly-by of Mars can easily be overcome.

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

5 comments

  • I understand the need to develop the technology and procedures to keep people alive far from terrestrial support, but If I’m going to spend the better part of two years in a tin can, I’d want to do more than just wave at Mars on the way past.

  • Chris Kirkendall

    Good point – what could we learn from a manned Mars flyby that we don’t already know from all the various robotic landers & orbiters? When Apollo 8 did its circumlunar flight to the Moon, it showed we could get there & back, and safely, and Apollo 10 demonstrated the Lunar Lander’s capabilities, but these were steps in the ultimate goal of a manned landing. It would be interesting to do, and probably fascinating for the astronauts onboard to view Mars from only 100 mi, but otherwise, what would be the point, unless there was a “next step”? I guess if it could be demonstrated that a human crew could survive the time frame of a round trip, that would be something positive, and maybe provide valuable data for a future manned Mars landing. But it sounds like this is more of a one-off stunt.

  • Blair and Chris,

    Both of you should really read Leaving Earth. The amount of knowledge we would gain from a fly-by is practically immeasurable, none of which could be gained by robotic missions. And I’m not talking about knowledge about Mars but about the engineering and medical information needed to build and fly humans to another world.

    It is this lack of knowledge that makes me doubt their fly-date of 2018. Much of this research has to first go on in Earth orbit, in an orbiting prototype interplanetary spaceship falsely called a “space station.” Such research takes time, as to find out if you can survive for two years in space you have to live two years in space.

  • Chris Kirkendall

    Thanks, Bob – I’ll check that out. I didn”t mean to dismiss the idea entirely, I was just wondering if it would be of much value on its own – as I said, if it’s part of a plan to go ahead & eventually land humans on Mars, I could see the value of a flyby first…

  • Chris,

    I emailed you directly about your purchase of Leaving Earth. Please respond to me directly by email.

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