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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.


May 3, 2023 Quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

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

  • Lee S

    Haven’t NASA been complaining about this for decades? I’m sure I had a conversation on some forum ( here? ) Regarding the particular isotope that nasa uses, the lack of it, and the fact no one is producing it any more. It was long ago, and my memory is woozy, but I believe it is the same isotope used for medical practice. I am pretty sure since then we have had New horizons, and 2 Mars rovers at least powered by plutonium. That seems a long time to keep something with a relatively short half life in storage.

    I’m also sure that someone here can refresh my memory with more details please… I find the very notion that the same element can have very different properties absolutely fascinating, even though I understand the physics.

    ( Bob, you didn’t include the link..)

    On an absolute side note… My daughter today got the result that she aced an A+ on her biology exam… I just hope she doesn’t become a serial underachiever like Father… If not, she is destined to certainly become a scientist in one branch or another… I couldn’t be more proud :-)

  • Lee S: Link added. Sorry about that.

  • Jay

    Lee,
    Good questions. The half-life of the Pu-238 is about 88 years. This isotope is not weapons grade material, that is Pu-239. We are back to producing it at INL (Idaho National Laboratories), just not a great quantities. We also purchased Pu-238 from the Russians a few times.

    To answer your question about medicine, they quit using the same material in pacemakers a few decades ago. They use Lithium batteries now, starting in the early 80’s.

    Bob did talk about this shortage a couple years ago in this article.

  • Lee S

    @Jay, Thanks for the info and the link back to Bob’s post.

    On a tangential note, it’s funny how as we all get older, over 5 years becomes “a couple of years” !! ;-)

  • Jeff Wright

    Some quotes:

    “NASA / DOD are producing Plutonium 238.
    It’s a different isotope, great for RTGs, useless for nuclear reactors.”

    “Plutonium 239
    Great for nuclear reactors, useless for RTGs.”
    https://thebulletin.org/2020/04/britain-has-139-tons-of-plutonium-thats-a-real-problem/

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