May 22, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- China’s Xichang spaceport brags that it had in 2022 zero injuries or casualties from rocket debris falling
This is one of China’s interior spaceports, so they apparently recognize that their rocket stages can fall on someone’s head, and are proud that in 2022 they avoided any such tragedies. Well, bully for them.
- Data from China’s Mars rover Zhurong suggests there was an ancient ocean once at its landing zone
The fundamental question remains: How could liquid water have been there in a climate that is too cold and an atmosphere too thin?
- India confirms it will launch Chandrayaan-3 to the Moon on July 12, 2023
The landing date near the south pole will be August 23, 2023.
- India targets May 29, 2023 for the next launch of its large GSLV rocket
It will place a GPS-type satellite into oribt.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. 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:
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Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- China’s Xichang spaceport brags that it had in 2022 zero injuries or casualties from rocket debris falling
This is one of China’s interior spaceports, so they apparently recognize that their rocket stages can fall on someone’s head, and are proud that in 2022 they avoided any such tragedies. Well, bully for them.
- Data from China’s Mars rover Zhurong suggests there was an ancient ocean once at its landing zone
The fundamental question remains: How could liquid water have been there in a climate that is too cold and an atmosphere too thin?
- India confirms it will launch Chandrayaan-3 to the Moon on July 12, 2023
The landing date near the south pole will be August 23, 2023.
- India targets May 29, 2023 for the next launch of its large GSLV rocket
It will place a GPS-type satellite into oribt.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. 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.
Robert wrote: “This is one of China’s interior spaceports, so they apparently recognize that their rocket stages can fall on someone’s head, and are proud that in 2022 they avoided any such tragedies. Well, bully for them.”
This is a good thing. It shows that they care. Right up until there is an injury or casualty, then they are likely to just say “oops. Better luck next time.”
The Z-man asked;
“The fundamental question remains: How could liquid water have been there in a climate that is too cold and an atmosphere too thin?”
The evidence for flowing liquid is everywhere. (we assume it’s water). At one time I would not have believed it, until the pictures from the satellites started coming back.
The way Mars is today, is not how it has always been.
I have believed for a long time the hypothesis that the collapse of our mostly oxygen atmosphere
into water, killing the dinosaurs, and the beginning of the “ice ages” was triggered by of cloud of gas from the local chimney, perhaps from a supernova, similar to the dust between us and the center of our own galaxy.
It passed through changing our solar system forever, adding vast amounts of hydrolyzed carbon (methane) and hydrolyzed nitrogen (ammonia) as well as other light gases on all the planets in our solar system. (adding mass to all the planets and ice to the outer moons)
Europa is much smaller than Mars, and yet is the said to have a large amount of liquid under the ice.
There’s good evidence that Mars was once completely covered in similar ice, and because of it’s proximity to the sun, it’s once thicker atmosphere and volume has blown away with the solar wind.
All that’s left is the ice caps.
If there was liquid under the ice slushing around with every rotation, it would explain why there’s no shoreline, (except maybe the cliffs that’s around some of the volcanoes) and extreme erosion of the canyons and bare rock formations that wind alone cannot explain, especially in a low density atmosphere.
As the liquid under the ice froze, becoming glacier, it was just a matter time before it all evaporated away and left the planet… Except for what sunk deep below the sand.
Perhaps there wasn’t much water that was liquid, much of the impact craters survived except in the northern hemisphere.
Just guessing with a lot of imagination…
By the way, Zhurong went to hibernation a year ago and hasn’t woken up… It might be dead.