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{{comic
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{{Comic
 
| number    = 1074
 
| number    = 1074
 
| date      = June 27, 2012
 
| date      = June 27, 2012
 
| title    = Moon Landing
 
| title    = Moon Landing
 
| image    = moon_landing.png
 
| image    = moon_landing.png
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| imagesize =
 
| titletext = Ok, so Spirit and Opportunity are pretty awesome. And Kepler. And New Horizons, Cassini, Curiosity, TiME, and Project M. But c'mon, if the Earth were a basketball, in 40 years no human's been more than half an inch from the surface.
 
| titletext = Ok, so Spirit and Opportunity are pretty awesome. And Kepler. And New Horizons, Cassini, Curiosity, TiME, and Project M. But c'mon, if the Earth were a basketball, in 40 years no human's been more than half an inch from the surface.
 
}}
 
}}
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
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The comment to which [[Cueball]] is referring is [https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/73388356461019136 a tweet] by {{w|Neil deGrasse Tyson}}, an American astrophysicist and science communicator. He has appeared on many different shows, ranging from The Discovery Channel to The Big Bang Theory.
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Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist and science communicator. He is currently the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space. You have probably seen him on many different TV shows from anything on the Discovery Channel to The Big Bang Theory.
  
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There are a number of {{w|moon landing conspiracy theories|conspiracy theories}} claiming that the moon landing was a hoax. Tyson offers a pretty compelling argument against them, but [[Megan]] presents an even more convincing refutation, snarkily implying that NASA really hasn't done anything spectacular since 1969.
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There are a number of {{w|moon landing conspiracy theories|conspiracy theories}} that the moon landing was a hoax. Tyson offers a pretty compelling argument against them, but [[Megan]] presents an even more convincing refutation, snarkily implying that NASA really hasn't done anything spectacular since 1969.
  
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And Cueball responds with a pun on the word "burn". Burn can mean a particularly effective insult, or it can mean the consumption of fuel for propulsion. In this case, the "burn" was so effective it pushed the spaceship out of orbit (which usually takes a very large amount of burning, depending on the gravity of the planet or moon).
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And, of course, [[Cueball]] responds with a pun on the word "burn". Burn can mean a particularly effective insult, or it can mean the consumption of fuel for propulsion. In this case, the "burn" was so effective it pushed the spaceship out of orbit (which usually takes a very large amount of burning, depending on the gravity of the planet or moon).
  
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In the title text [[Randall]] mentions many successful {{w|NASA}} unmanned missions:
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=== Title text ===
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*The {{w|Mars Exploration Rover|Mars rovers}} Spirit and Opportunity, which landed in 2004. Spirit got stuck in 2009 and shut down for good in 2010 (see [[695: Spirit]]). Opportunity worked for over ten years on the surface of Mars before shutting down due to a loss of power in 2018 (see [[2111: Opportunity Rover]]).
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NASA's Spirit and Opportunity are Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER) on an ongoing robotic space mission exploring the planet Mars.
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*{{w|Kepler (spacecraft)|Kepler}} found many {{w|exoplanets}}.
 
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*{{w|New Horizons}} is a mission to the dwarf planet {{w|Pluto}} and beyond. It did a flyby of Pluto in July 2015 and is on its way out of the solar system.
 
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*{{w|Cassini–Huygens|Cassini}} was a probe orbiting {{w|Saturn}} from 2004 until {{w|Cassini_retirement|its controlled entry into Saturn}} in 2017.
 
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*{{w|Curiosity (rover)|Curiosity}} is another, larger Mars rover, exploring the Martian surface since August 2012.
 
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*{{w|Titan Mare Explorer|TiME}} is a proposed mission to explore the oceans of Saturn's moon Titan.
 
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*{{w|Project M (NASA)|Project M}} is an idea to send human-like robots to the Moon.
 
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The final sentence of the title text notes that all manned missions since the Moon landings have taken place in low-earth orbit, which is barely far off of the Earth's surface. If the Earth were scaled to the size of a regulation basketball, approximately 24 cm (9¼ inches) in diameter, those manned missions would have all taken place within 1.25 cm (½ inch) of the ball's surface. At this scale the Moon would be at a distance of 7.7 m (25.3 ft). Unmanned missions, such as those named above or the {{w|Voyager program|Voyager}} and {{w|Mariner program|Mariner}} probes of the 1960s and 1970s, have traveled much further.  
 
  
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A basketball-sized Earth was the main focus of [[1515: Basketball Earth]].
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NASA's Kepler is a space observatory launched by NASA to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars.
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NASA's New Horizons is a robotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to flyby and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, Hydra and S/2011 P 1, with an estimated arrival date at the Pluto-Charon system of July 14, 2015.
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NASA's Cassini–Huygens is a flagship-class NASA-ESA-ASI spacecraft sent to the Saturn system. It has studied the planet and its many natural satellites since arriving there in 2004, also observing Jupiter, the Heliosphere, and testing the theory of relativity.
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NASA's Curiosity is a Mars rover launched on November 26, 2011. Currently On the planet as planned, it was scheduled to land in Gale Crater at about 05:31 UTC on August 6, 2012. The rover's objectives include searching for past or present life, studying the Martian climate, studying Martian geology, and collecting data for a future manned mission to Mars.
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NASA's TiME or Titan Mare Explorer is a proposed spacecraft lander that, if launched, would probe Titan, the largest moon of the planet Saturn, and would perform the first exploration of an extraterrestrial sea.
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Project M was a proposed NASA project headed by Stephen J. Altemus, to send a Robonaut to the Moon.
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And that is terrible to hear in the image text that we haven't been more than half an inch from the surface of the Earth if it were the size of a basketball. Personally, I'm putting most of my hope in Space X. With most of the NASA layoffs, a lot of the people went over to Space X.  (A private company dedicated to space travel founded by former eBay founder Elon Musk.) I think they (or another private company) are the only hope of getting back into space and permanently this time.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
 
:[Cueball is sitting at a table with a laptop open. His hands are on the keys.]
 
:[Cueball is sitting at a table with a laptop open. His hands are on the keys.]
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:Cueball: Hah- Neil DeGrasse Tyson has a great reply to people who doubt astronauts went to the moon.
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:Cueball: Hah-- Neil DeGrasse Tyson has a great reply to people who doubt astronauts went to the moon.
 
:Voice off-screen: Oh?
 
:Voice off-screen: Oh?
 
:Cueball: "Atop 3,000 tons of rocket fuel, where ''else'' do you think they were headed?"
 
:Cueball: "Atop 3,000 tons of rocket fuel, where ''else'' do you think they were headed?"
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:[Both Megan and Cueball are now visible. Cueball has turned his chair around to face her.]
 
:[Both Megan and Cueball are now visible. Cueball has turned his chair around to face her.]
 
:Megan: If NASA were willing to fake great accomplishments, they'd have a second one by now.
 
:Megan: If NASA were willing to fake great accomplishments, they'd have a second one by now.
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:Cueball: ''Ouch.''
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:Cueball: Ouch.
 
:Megan: ...Too mean?
 
:Megan: ...Too mean?
 
:Cueball: That burn was so harsh I think you deorbited.
 
:Cueball: That burn was so harsh I think you deorbited.
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==Trivia==
 
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As of this comic, Tyson is the "Frederick P. Rose Director" (a special honorary title) of the {{w|Hayden Planetarium}}
 
  
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
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[[Category:Puns]]
 
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[[Category:Space]]
 
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[[Category:Basketball]]
 

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