Editing 3159: Continents

{{comic
| number    = 3159
| date      = October 24, 2025
| title     = Continents
| image     = continents_2x.png
| imagesize = 276x430px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = The inflection point was probably in late 1966 or 1967, so when Neil Armstrong flew to space on Gemini 8, plate tectonics was not widely accepted, but when he landed on the Moon three years later it was the mainstream consensus.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a TECTONIC PLATE-SIZED CONVEYOR BELT. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
{{w|Plate tectonics}} is the theory that the Earth's crust consists of a number of large land masses that have been slowly moving for billions of years. The theory is built on the earlier idea of {{w|Plate_tectonics#Continental_drift|continental drift}}, which was first proposed in the early 20th century. It was controversial until the mid-1960s, when advances in technology such as {{w|Geophysical_imaging#Seismic_Methods|seismic imaging}} made the mechanism clear.

In this comic, [[Randall]] observes that it is very strange how people could go to space before understanding plate tectonics on Earth, due to space being thought of usually as a mysterious frontier, while humans have been on Earth for a very long time. (Exactly how long depends on how you define "human".)<!-- but is that relevent? -->

Spaceflight has existed in some form since WWII, with the first orbital flight occurring in 1957 and the first manned spaceflight in 1961, (when the {{w|Soviet Union}} launched {{w|Yuri Gagarin}} into space, with the United States responding in kind a few months later). The timeline is noteworthy because one of the most fundamental processes of the planet we live on had not been accepted by the scientific community yet by that time. There are good reasons for this, because in fact spaceflight provides important evidence of plate tectonics, but it still ''feels'' strange. The first satellite launches, {{w|Sputnik}} and {{w|Explorer 1}}, took place during (and participated in) the {{w|International Geophysical Year}}, a focused international effort in 1957-58 to collaborate across political lines to study the Earth. In the present day, much of plate tectonics research depends on {{w|Satellite navigation|satellite tracking and navigation}}, such as {{w|GPS}} (initiated 1973, launched starting in 1978, operational since 1993), to monitor plate motions in ways that a human on the ground cannot sense. Other critical technologies include {{w|laser rangefinder|laser ranging}} (invented in 1960) and improvements in {{w|gravimetry|gravimetrics}}, all in advancement around the same time and in the same context of the {{w|Space Race}}.

The spacecraft depicted in the comic appear to be a stylized {{w|Project Gemini|Gemini}} re-entry module and {{w|Agena target vehicle}}. "Houston" is the call sign of mission control at the {{w|Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center}} (known as the Manned Space Center prior to 1973) in Houston, Texas, the center that NASA astronauts typically communicate with. The dialogue is imagined, but entirely plausible.

The title text points out that plate tectonics was finally validated between the first and last space missions of {{w|Neil Armstrong}}, the first person to walk on the Moon. His first spaceflight was in 1966 on {{w|Gemini 8}}, and his second and last was in 1969 on {{w|Apollo 11}}, the first mission to land people on the Moon.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Two spacecraft, a Gemini capsule and an Agena Target Vehicle with a loose tether connecting them, are in space over the Mediterranean with Italy and other parts of southern Western Europe in the background and Tunisia in the foreground. A voice is emanating from the spacecraft]
:Spacecraft: Houston, the view is superb. We can see the continents spread out below us, right where they've been since the Earth formed.
:[Caption below the panel:]
:I still can't believe we developed spaceflight before we figured out that the continents moved.

==Trivia==
The comic may be intended to show Gemini 8's mission, with Armstrong on board, to dock with the previously launched {{w|Agena target vehicle|target vehicle}}. However, severe control issues with that mission precluded many of the planned aims (including the experiments that involved a tethered connection). The mission that might at some point have looked most like this depiction was perhaps {{w|Gemini 11}}, also launched in 1966 but without Armstrong being on board.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]