March 9, 2018 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts. I especially like John Batchelor’s titles for each part: 1.Will the Trump administration shut down SLS? 2. Jupiter is completely different than anything else.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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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Embedded below the fold in two parts. I especially like John Batchelor’s titles for each part: 1.Will the Trump administration shut down SLS? 2. Jupiter is completely different than anything else.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed 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.
While Cassini has shown that Saturn has got a polar hexagon, Juno has shown that Jupiter has an octagon at one pole and a pentagon at the other. On Jupiter the patterns aren’t continuous but connect circular storms. Remarkable. Reminds me of Kepler’s Mysterium Cosmographicum where he tries to fit the six Platonic symmetric polyhedrons to the then known properties of the planets.
You’re almost certainly right, Bob: SLS does not seem to be in immediate danger of being killed off. Still too much political support for it; Trump has too many more urgent needs to deploy his limited political capital on. But SLS defenders are clearly worried. I can’t recall any surge on this scale of SLS defenses pieces like we have seen in recent months.
One political dynamic that does worry me a little, however, is one identified by Eric Berger at Ars Technica some months ago. Old Space firms do seem to have picked up on the unpopularity of key New Space titans like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos on the populist (i.e., Trumpian) Right, and they’ve seemingly been fanning these flames in recent months. They perceive them as having lefty politics (which is true to some degree, especially of Bezos) and globalist sympathies – if you have any doubt, simply look at the combox under any Musk- or Bezos related story at Breitbart. (Never mind that LockMart and Boeing execs and managers are hardly staunch populists, either.) The idea of empowering them further with government contracts, even of the fixed cost variety, immediately pushes certain buttons. Given the influence such cohorts have in Washington now, it’s cause for concern that it could help extend the life of SLS beyond what it might otherwise obtain.
All of which is why Trump’s remarks are valuable. He has a credibility with these cohorts that no one else does to date. It’s not going to eliminate anti-Musk/Bezos antipathies on the Right, but it may take some of the edge off.