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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.


September 11, 2024 Quick space links

As BtB’s stringer Jay is on a work trip this week, reader Gary volunteered to send me some links. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

 

 

 

 

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

6 comments

  • wayne

    Joe Rogan Experience #2201
    Dr. Robert Epstein (9-11-24)
    https://youtu.be/Azu8XnZdxeA
    (2:38:55)

  • Richard M

    SpaceX now controls two-thirds of all active satellites in orbit

    And Elon’s highlighting of this just happened to precede this development today: “In calling for more competition in the space economy, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel takes issue with SpaceX controlling about two-thirds of the satellites in Earth’s orbit.”
    https://www.pcmag.com/news/fcc-chair-encourages-satellite-internet-competition-hints-starlink-is-a

    Rosenworcel is, of course, a Biden appointee.

    All of us here favor competition, of course; that is the whole point of having a free market. But one does wonder if this newly found zeal for a competitive market in low latency satellite internet would have been found so quickly if the man with the nascent monopoly had not suddenly become a large and vocal donor to the Trump campaign.

  • Edward

    SpaceX now controls two-thirds of all active satellites in orbit

    But, are other constellation operators about to accomplish similar results with fewer satellites? It is the finding of efficiencies that brings profits, and those profits are the reward for finding efficiencies.
    ______________
    … the fastest the chopsticks have closed in the catch position on the tower so far.

    It looked like 4 seconds to close and an additional four seconds to stop the major vibration. I would recommend a slower closure rate at the end of the stroke, a little like modern door closers. It may take five or six seconds to close the chopsticks, but the reduced transient vibration may be worth the additional time.

    How wide open do the chopsticks need to be, because if the rocket is too far away from the targeted region, the chopsticks are going to hit hard and bat the rocket around like a baseball off a bat.

  • Jeff Wright

    Polaris Dawn astronauts out and about…

  • wayne

    Edward:
    how about—
    “SpaceX Has Built & Launched 2/3’s of all Satellites Currently in Orbit”
    -We should give Musk a Medal,

    Jeff–
    watching the replay right now.

    Question: What sort of temperatures are they being subjected to? Inside and outside.

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