3018: Second Stage

2024-11-30T17:19:08Z

Haanwinckel:

{{comic
| number = 3018
| date = November 29, 2024
| title = Second Stage
| image = second_stage_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hmm, they won't do in-flight delivery, so let's order a new first and second stage to our emergency landing site and then try to touch down on top of them to save time.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SECOND STAGE AMAZON DELIVERY DRIVER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about how rockets use multiple stages when lifting off, and in the comic, they installed too few stages. This is unlikely to happen in real life, because a lot of work goes into planning rockets.As the second stage is supposed to be started (according to the first pilot), the second pilot is initially confused and asks if a second stage was needed. The first pilot confirms that there was supposed to be a second stage, and thought that it was the second pilot's responsibility to install and confirm there was a second stage. When both pilots realize there is no second stage, the second pilot, naturally, thinks he can order one on Amazon with same day delivery (though Amazon typically doesn't sell space ship stages - at least not with same day delivery). He then has difficulty picking an address zip code as they are likely traveling too high above the ground and too fast to be in a single postal area for long enough for the delivery to take place. The joke is likely poking fun at people becoming highly dependent upon {{w|Amazon_(company)|Amazon delivery}} and that they don't need to remember to bring things on trips since they can have almost anything delivered to them while they travel.

Alternatively, the comic may allude to a not-so-distant future when space travel is a much more mundane endeavor. If companies such as SpaceX succeed in their mass-production and launch cadence goals, one could imagine a scenario where rocket parts become standardized and easily replaceable---similarly to how it is easy today to replace a car's tire or fill its fuel tank if you get stranded on a highway.

This is not the first time Randal discusses the idea of a mid-flight delivery. This [https://what-if.xkcd.com/149/ What If?] explanation attempts to answer if it possible to have pizza delivered to you, by a bird, while flying on a commercial airline.

The comic depicts a manned rocket launch, and the start of its subsequent flight. All current rockets, that are capable of sending manned capsules to orbit, do so by the initial rocket engines and fuel-tank being expended (or nearly so, where there is reusability) and disconnected to allow the smaller next stage to fire and continue the boost towards orbit with altitude-optimal engines and without the mass of the spent fuel tanks. Above this second stage may be one or more other stages, as required for the mission, which generally involves propulsion that is optimal for use in the vacuum of space, having a larger specific impulse but lower overall thrust, allowing for maneuvers to be completed with less fuel. In real life, the crew of a manned rocket are not solely, personally responsible for arranging the installation of critical hardware, and pre-launch checks are done to ensure that all critical systems are not merely present but functional.



Note: the rocket design, though apparently at least one segment short, appears to be substantially taller than the launch tower of the pad, which is a strangely incongruous detail. Unless the real rocket support is an angled back "hard spine" structure that has been rotated out of the way and down into the exhaust-flume/flame-trench quenching system. Since the voices are coming from what appears to be a separate module at the top of the rocket, it may be that the ''shell'' of the second stage is present, but not the hardware or fuel.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A multi-stage rocket, with a capsule on top, is lifting-off the ground from a launchpad, at least two rocket nozzles are visibly producing a flame, and the pad is surrounded with smoke and/or steam from the blast suppression system. A voice comes from the capsule at the top.]
:We have liftoff.

:[The first stage separates from the rest of the rocket, part way through the roll-program. There are no obvious engines standing out from the 'second stage' (or extended payload trunk) lower shroud.]
:Main engine cutoff.
:Stage separation confirmed.
:We are go for second stage burn.

:Second stage?

:Yes.
:...What?

:[The first stage and the rest of the rocket are drifting apart in apparent freefall. No rocket is firing and the background does not seem to indicate that this view is beyond the atmosphere.]
:We were supposed to have a second stage?

:...Yes!

:Did '''''you''''' set up a second stage?

:I thought '''''you''''' were handling staging!

:Oh no.

:[They continue to drift apart slowly.]
:Okay, don't panic.
:Lemme see if we can order a stage online for same-day delivery.

:''Sigh''.

:Hey, what zip code should I put? Ours keeps changing.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Rockets]]

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3018: Second Stage