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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
 
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The rail gun: a cheap solution for getting payloads into orbit quickly.

The rail gun: a cheap solution for getting payloads into orbit quickly.

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

5 comments

  • Sounds a lot like John Hunter’s Quicklaunch,which utilizes a gas gun. Hunter believes he has the solution to some technical problems associated with launching a high velocity object in the lower atmosphere. There’s not much mention here on that problem.

    But the military has deep pockets, so he may that problem handled.

  • wade

    launch is under terms of Lift. re entry Has always been a ratio of conditions as to rate of Fall in regards to friction encountered. the same as drag coefficient calculations regarding Brake Systems that most of of us easily understand. a by product of this unit of friction is indeed Heat. and therefore, ridding the proposed structure Of.

  • Kelly Starks

    Actually this doesn’t deal with any of the issues of launch costs as far as I can see. It would likely make them worse since few loads could take its high G and thermal loads, hence exacerbating the fixed cost vrs low market demand issue that dominates launch costs.

    Same way space Elevators would likely drive costs to orbit way up compared to rockets – (potentially tens or hundreds of times more with a similar market size).

  • wade

    interesting points Kelly, however, in respect to you. please have a look at replublicbikes.com as to mastering any of your own design levels of achievement. fancy yourself a spartan amongst the basics. and after , oh ….lets say 30years of direct contact with hardware beginning with the parabolic cone dimensions of nozzle design parameters in regards to nozzle velocities that produce desired thrust per seconds over a prescribed duration of load. equals a witty come back : i can Only hope.

  • wade

    not being mean, but i know where we can get some rather Spiff beanie caps with awesome revolving propellers affixed to their crowns

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