140: Perseverance delayed again. Bob Zimmerman BehindtheBlack.com
Image Mars 2020 Rover Is Roving https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA23499 In a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, engineers observed the first driving test for NASA's Mars 2020 rover on Dec. 17, 2019. Scheduled to launch as early as July 2020, the Mars 2020 mission will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize Mars' climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. It is scheduled to land in an area of Mars known as Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. JPL is building and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover for NASA. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management. For more information about the mission, go to https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/. NASA/JPL-Caltech - https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/images/largesize/PIA23499_hires.jpg Public Domain (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PIA23499-Mars2020Rover-FirstTestDrive-20191217a.jpg) File:PIA23499-Mars2020Rover-FirstTestDrive-20191217a.jpg Created: 17 December 2019 Perseverance delayed again. Bob Zimmerman BehindtheBlack.com https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/perseverance-launch-delayed-to-july-30-2020/ Announcement: 10th Anniversary Fund-Raising Drive for Behind the Black (https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/10th-anniversary-fund-raising-drive-for-behind-the-black/) July 1, 2020 at 12:15 am (https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/10th-anniversary-fund-raising-drive-for-behind-the-black/) Robert Zimmerman (https://behindtheblack.com/author/rzimmerman/) ReadersEvery July, to celebrate the anniversary of the start of Behind the Black in 2010, I hold a month-long fund-raising campaign to make it possible for me to continue my work here for another year. This year’s fund-raising drive however is more significant in that it is also the 10th anniversary of this website’s founding. It is hard to believe, but I have been doing this for a full decade, during which I have written more than 22,000 posts, of which more than 1,000 were essays and almost 2,600 were evening pauses.This year’s fund drive is also more important because of the growing intolerance of free speech and dissent in American culture. Increasingly people who don’t like what they read are blatantly acting to blackball sites like mine. (https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/persecution-is-now-cool/) I have tried to insulate myself from this tyrannical effort by not depending on Google advertising or cross-posts on Facebook or Twitter. Though this prevents them from having a hold on me, it also acts to limit my exposure.I therefore am entirely dependent on the generous support of my readers, which has been growing steadily and sometimes exponentially in the past six years (which is about when I gave up on advertising to go directly to my readers). While asking for voluntary donations is a harder way to make money, it sets me free to say and write anything I wish. No one has a hold on me. No one tells me what to write. From me you will always get my honest perspective on space, science, culture, and politics.I therefore ask you to please consider donating to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, as outlined in the tip jar below or in the column to the right. You can also consider buying my books, all of which are available in the boxes scattered throughout the webpage. You will have my eternal gratitude, and you will help me continue my work.This announcement will remain at the top of the webpage for the next month. Scroll down for new posts.