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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.

 

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Ingenuity completes 49th flight on Mars

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

The Ingenuity team today posted the official flight totals for the Mars helicopter’s 49th flight, which took place yesterday.

The helicopter flew 925 feet for 143 seconds, or two minutes and twenty-three seconds. The plan had been to fly 894 feet for 135 seconds, but has been happening consistently for the past dozen or so flights, the helicopter spent a little more time in the air and traveled a little farther.

As for altitude, it apparently did exactly as planned, averaging about 40 feet in height until the end of the mission, when Ingenuity went straight up another twelve feet to get a wider view of its landing area.

The map to the right shows the context. The green dot marks Ingenuity’s location at the start of the flight. The green line indicates my approximate estimate of its flight path and landing area, which the engineering team has not yet posted. The white dots and line mark Perseverance’s path, with its present location at the area dubbed Tenby where it has obtained its first core sample from the top of the delta.

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

One comment

  • While Ingenuity currently holds all of the Martian aviation records, I would like to see the team find out just how high they can go. The engineers have an idea, but talkin’ ain’t doin’. Gun it, and run it.

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