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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.


March 27, 2025 Quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

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

3 comments

  • Max

    That made me laugh, “Bio-Methane”, CH4 identical to regular methane from deep in the earth or from the sun. I guess manure is as good of source as any biodegradable material.
    Fun fact, 95% of methane from cow feed is generated as it rots on the ground after it leaves the cow. (Not in the cow)(The cow burp’s is mostly “air” swallowed from chewing it’s cud into foam) methane from manure becomes a valuable source of carbon dioxide when tilled into the ground as fertilizer for crops.

    And then the company I work for buys those crops and turns it into bio fuel, a substitute for diesel fuel, so it may feel good about itself while it reduces the food supply driving up prices. They can’t remove all the water from biofuel as a cost saving measure, just as they don’t remove all the water from alcohol when it’s added to gasoline at a 10% mixture. I haven’t checked in a while, but 100 proof alcohol means for every 20 gallons of gas, you get a gallon of alcohol and a gallon of water which is not a fuel.
    I suspect that’s what’s happening with my equipment because now I’m fueling 2000 gallons a day instead of 1000 per day. The “woke” mind virus still infests corporations across the country.

  • Dick Eagleson

    If Interstellar expects plaudits from the woke greenies for their manure-powered rocket engine I fear they will be disappointed. The woke greenies want to get rid of cows too. In the future, we’re all supposed to own nothing, live in pods, eat only bugs and be happy.

  • Jeff Wright

    That’s one reason I loved the little Sojourner rover–since it had solar panels up top–no one noticed the radioactive Warm Electronics Box within.

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