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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.


November 22, 2023 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast

Embedded below the fold in two parts.

To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.

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

4 comments

  • Col Beausabre

    Bob, You were appalled during the JWST’s development. Has your opinion changed based on the results? Is it worth the cost over runs and delays? PS – Happy Turkey Day

    Gobble Gobble

  • Col Beausabre: Webb is doing exactly what I expected, and that is good. It however was not worth the money for several reasons:

    1. The cost overruns shut down almost all other space astronomy projects at NASA for almost two decades. It would have been better to keep launching many other telescopes than one big one. We likely would have learned more for the dollars spent.

    2. The project should not have cost as much as it did. Much of that cost overrun was because NASA really doesn’t care about cost. It knows the goal of Congress is to spend money in local districts. NASA is always glad to oblige. An honest effort to build this telescope would have cost about half and have been completed sooner.

  • Col Beausabre

    Bob, Thank you.

  • Edward

    John had noted that Starship leapt off the pad and wondered whether it would have been slower had there been a payload aboard.

    The quick answer is: not really.

    The longer answer is that it took about as long as a couple of us had calculated before the April launch. A 150 ton payload is only about 3% of the lift off weight, so it would have taken only about three percent more time with a payload (or 3% less without, if they had a test mass on this launch).

    Although there are many reasons to launch with a test mass, such as determining the performance of proposed mounting hardware, there are also reasons to launch early development ships without a mass, such as reducing complications and giving a better chance to achieve orbital speed. It is not clear which way SpaceX chose to go on this flight.
    ___________
    As for Webb, I think it would have been better still had NASA been a better manager and had kept the budget and schedule under control so that we could have had the telescopes and science that were lost to Webb’s voracious ways as well as the science from Webb. This is what was intended when they budgeted Webb, and NASA should have managed to provide both. Now the Roman Telescope is pulling another Webb, and we may lose the opportunities for even more small telescopes and even more science due to Roman’s insatiable appetite.

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