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The time has come for my annual short pre-Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

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Parker probe completes fifth Venus flyby

The Parker Solar Probe on October 16th successfully completed its fifth flyby of Venus, designed to lower its solar orbit around the Sun.

At just after 5:30 a.m. EDT, moving about 15 miles (24 kilometers) per second, the spacecraft swooped 2,370 miles (3,814 kilometers) above Venus’ surface. Such gravity assists are essential to the mission to bring Parker Solar Probe progressively closer to the Sun; the spacecraft counts on the planet to reduce its orbital energy, which in turn allows it to travel closer to the Sun and measure the properties of the solar wind near its source.

This was the fifth of seven planned Venus gravity assists. The flyby reduced Parker Solar Probe’s orbital speed by about 6,040 miles per hour (9,720 kilometers per hour), and set it up for its 10th close pass (or perihelion) by the Sun, on Nov. 21.

Parker Solar Probe will break its own distance and speed records on that closest approach, when it comes approximately 5.3 million miles (8.5 million kilometers) from the Sun’s surface — some 1.2 million miles (1.9 million kilometers) closer than the previous perihelion on Aug. 13 – while reaching 101 miles (163 kilometers) per second, or 364,621 miles per hour. Assisted by two more Venus flybys, in August 2023 and November 2024, Parker Solar Probe will eventually come within 4 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) of the solar surface in December 2024.

That speed record, 364,621 miles per hour, is the fastest any human built object as ever traveled.

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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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

  • Questioner

    Event Horizon: “Why Venus May Have Life with Dr. Janusz Petkowski”

    “Our view of the clouds of Venus may be severely incomplete. The multitude of atmospheric anomalies suggest unknown chemistry or maybe even life in the clouds of Venus…..”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFYR3kDyhu8

  • Questioner

    V101 Science: “This Is What The Surface Of Venus Sounds Like! Venera 14 Sound Recording 1982”

    “Nearly 40 years ago Venera 14 landed on Venus and recorded the sound of its eerie, scorched surface. But what did it hear? Click of the video to find out!”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3Ife6iBdsU

    08:04

  • Questioner

    “Venus is NOT a “Runaway” Greenhouse Effect!”

    The Science Asylum

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgw-hMZi5eA

  • Questioner

    Mars and Venus Habitability with NASA Scientist Dr. Chris Colose

    “A discussion the hypothetical habitability of Mars and Venus if they were to switch places. Thanks to Dr. Chris Colose from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies for taking the time to speak with me.”

    Nick Lucid

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdc6lSh8guw&t=0s

    00:00:00 Dr. Colose’s work
    00:05:14 Introduction to Topic
    00:08:10 Move Mars to Venus’s orbit now
    00:11:33 Move Venus to Mar’s orbit now
    00:19:40 Greenhouse Effect
    00:31:15 Runaway Greenhouse Effect
    00:40:50 If Mars formed in Venus’s Orbit
    00:49:56 Faint Young Sun Paradox
    00:54:30 Runaway Greenhouse on Mars
    01:02:58 If Venus formed in Mars’s Orbit
    01:11:04 End of Conversation
    _______________________________

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