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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.

 

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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.


September 13, 2016 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast

Embedded below the fold. Tonight was a special double podcast, lasting almost 40 minutes. The first segment looks at the September 1 SpaceX launchpad situation, the second segment looks at Blue Origin and its new proposed rocket, the third segment looks at the state of Virgin Galactic and the Russian space industry as well as the Mars rovers, and the last segment looks at Mars, the Moon, earthquakes, and the coming end of Rosetta.

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

  • Greg Jones

    Hello.

    Starting at roughly 37:25, you / Mr. Batchelor discussed how the Moon might possibly cause earthquakes at high (Earth) tides during new / full Moon phases. You basically said that based on tidal effects and the effects of gas giants on their own moons that the Moon might well influence earthquake activity. I’m wondering about the effect of the Earth on the Moon, if this might cause moonquakes. Space.com

    http://www.space.com/18135-how-big-is-the-moon.html

    says that the Moon has 1.2% of Earth mass, so FWIW that differential is “fairly” large, but nothing like the Jupiter / Saturn / etc. systems, of course. The Moon has tidal locking, Earth does not, so the Moon does not rotate and therefore, its surface does not flex and would not heat the interior. Based on this, it looks like Earth does not cause moonquakes. Thoughts?

    Thanks!

  • Greg Jones

    Sorry – the Moon obviously DOES rotate – just not relative to the Earth. They call that tidal locking!

  • Edward

    Greg Jones,
    Nice observation. I haven’t looked into this topic before, because the moon is fairly solid. It has a small liquid core (about 20% of the diameter) so plate tectonics is unlikely, thus no tidal effects. Thus the only moonquakes would be from meteorite impacts, right?

    But wait! I came across this tidbit on NASA’s site:
    http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2006/15mar_moonquakes/
    There are at least four different kinds of moonquakes: (1) deep moonquakes about 700 km below the surface, probably caused by tides

    As you pointed out, Greg, the Moon does rotate, so the tides would be caused by the sun.

    Whether there is enough flexing to heat the interior is a mystery to me, but I would have said “no, obviously not” just a few minutes ago.

  • wayne

    Good show, always enjoy the longer-form! (the mp3 download only has the 1 intro-commercial, priceless!)

    Greg Jones/Edward–

    Fairly good read you might find of interest. Not a full-blown geology-techie text-book, but not dumbed down. (originally published 1995 with a revision in 2007)
    They cover all the Planets but you can only read chapter 4 for free on-line. (or I should say– I have the hard-copy ’95 edition. The online version is the 2007 revision, & I don’t think it’s available in its entirety for free but I haven’t looked.)

    “Exploring the Planets”
    Chapter 4: The Geology of the Moon
    http://explanet.info/Chapter04.htm#

    (I wouldn’t be surprised that Gravity is having its way with all of us & everything!)

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