To read this post please scroll down.

 

Readers!

 

It is now July, time once again to celebrate the start of this webpage in 2010 with my annual July fund-raising campaign.

 

This year I celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black. During that time I have done more than 33,000 posts, mostly covering the global space industry and the related planetary and astronomical science that comes from it. Along the way I have also felt compelled as a free American citizen to regularly post my thoughts on the politics and culture of the time, partly because I think it is important for free Americans to do so, and partly because those politics and that culture have a direct impact on the future of our civilization and its on-going efforts to explore and eventually colonize the solar system.

 

You can’t understand one without understanding the other.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent independent analysis you don’t find elsewhere. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn’t influenced by donations by established companies or political movements. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed 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.


Upcoming Zimmerman public lecture available for all – Last Call!

Tomorrow I will be giving a lecture on the Artemis Accords to the Arizona Space Business Roundtable, a monthly event in Tucson, founded by space businessman and local all-around good guy Stephen Fleming, to bring together the business-oriented space community of this city and southern Arizona.

From Stephen Fleming’s announcement:

Bob has spoken to the Roundtable before; this time, I’ve asked him to focus on the Artemis Accords… the USA’s attempt to “to create a safe and transparent environment which facilitates exploration, science, and commercial activities for all of humanity to enjoy.” What does that mean? It’s an attempt to break the international logjam that has blocked the private sector development and exploitation of resources on the Moon, asteroids, and other celestial bodies. How is it working, who has joined on, and what does China think about all this? Come find out from Bob!

The event will be open to the public, no charge, and will also be available on Zoom. It is scheduled for Tuesday, August 3, 2021, from 5:00 — 6:30 pm (Arizona time, which presently corresponds to Pacific time).

If you wish to come in person, the event will be at 110 E. Pennington St, Room 215, in Tucson.

If you want to attend via Zoom, you will need to express your interest as a comment below, and I will then email you the Zoom url and password. We are not publishing this information publicly to avoid a hacking during the event.

Let me repeat: You need to express an interest in attending by Zoom by posting a comment. Otherwise you will not get the password and will not be able to watch. (I will send out the password tomorrow to all those in the comment thread.)

If you are coming in person Stephen would appreciate it if you say so in a comment below also, so that he can estimate a count. He provides, out of his own pocket, cookies and coffee for in-person attendees, and needs to gauge how much to provide.

Note that I have written these essays previously about other Arizona Space Roundtable events:

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

19 comments

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *