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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.
 

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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.


Redwire to launch first commercial and private greenhouse in space

Capitalism in space: The in-space 3D printing company Redwire announced yesterday that it will launch to ISS the first privately-built greenhouse, scheduled for a ’23 liftoff.

Redwire is developing this greenhouse for agricultural company Dewey Scientific.

During the inaugural flight, Dewey Scientific will grow industrial hemp in the Greenhouse for a gene expression study. The company collaborated with Redwire, contributing technical details about the 60-day experiment and describing its potential to demonstrate the capabilities of the facility, while advancing biomedical and biofuels research.

The long term goal is to prove that this technology can produce products of value on future space stations, products that can then be sold on Earth. That both companies appear willing to invest some of their own research and development capital in this project suggests they both believe there will be a strong viable market for these products.

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

9 comments

  • Lee S

    I know hemp is a remarkable, and very useful plant, pretty much the entire plant is good for some use, and no doubt the scientific reasons behind its use are valid… But I can’t help but getting a giggle from the idea of “spaced out Spacemen”
    ( Although I’m not sure there is a smoking area on the ISS)

    :-)

  • john hare

    Aah, but can they make brownies??

  • pzatchok

    Seriously?
    Hemp?

    Just to prove a point I guess.

    All plants are 100% usable and recyclable. Hemp though is not the most easily biodegradable. And who needs textiles in space?
    Any plant part grown in space and not eaten should be turned back into dirt otherwise you have to store it and throw it away. Then you have to send water and nutrient mass back up equal to or better than the mass you send down as waste.

    Until we have a station with at least a partial gravity growing anything in space is just an experiment in techniques that will more than likely not be used for permanent habitation.

  • Ray Van Dune

    I would have guessed that large-scale crystal growth would be among the earliest microgravity industrial applications, before fiber growth. But perhaps the problem of returning the “produce” without destroying it is more tractable with fibers than with crystals?

  • GaryMike

    My first thought of ‘greenhouses in space’ was “Freedom”.

  • Chris

    I wonder if Dewey refers to0 Silent Running’s Dewey?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNBcmD3gnA

  • Chris asked “I wonder if Dewey refers to0 Silent Running’s Dewey?”

    10 points.

  • David M. Cook

    Ah yes, in a ship named Valley Forge!

  • Star Bird

    Teach the little Robots to play Poker and they start cheating

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