Editing 786: Exoplanets
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[[Beret Guy]] runs to wake up [[Cueball]], who is probably under the covers in bed, with his potentially middle of the night revelation that Humankind is discovering "{{w|exoplanet}}s" or planets that exist outside of our solar system. The indication is that these planets are habitable enough for humans, even if just for a visit. | [[Beret Guy]] runs to wake up [[Cueball]], who is probably under the covers in bed, with his potentially middle of the night revelation that Humankind is discovering "{{w|exoplanet}}s" or planets that exist outside of our solar system. The indication is that these planets are habitable enough for humans, even if just for a visit. | ||
| − | Then Beret Guy takes it a bit further thinking that one of the countries on Earth could restart {{w|Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)|Project Orion}} | + | Then Beret Guy takes it a bit further thinking that one of the countries on Earth could restart {{w|Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)|Project Orion}}. As Beret suggests, Project Orion was an early project to produce a spacecraft that would ride the shockwave from a series of nuclear bombs it dropped in order to travel very, very fast. However, the one major downside of Project Orion was the fallout that the launching of any such craft would present on Earth. One could try to boost the Orion spacecraft into orbit with conventional rockets, but Orion spacecraft are heavy — being composed of giant pusher plates and rows upon rows of nuclear bombs, they are hard to lift. On top of this, the {{w|Nuclear Test Ban Treaty}} means that the craft would be flatly illegal to build and launch on Earth, no matter what you did. However, if an asteroid mining project were to be started, the Orion drive spacecraft, the nuclear bombs, and all the infrastructure needed to man, build, and crew it could all be built safely in space, well away from the Earth's fragile biosphere, where little harm could be done. Some commercial spaceflight programs are interested in starting asteroid mining in the future, or even now: For example, see: https://www.planetaryresources.com. |
In summary, Beret is very excited that we can see (with the Hubble telescope and other earth-bound telescopes) and find exoplanets. Then with some advances in space technology we can create nuclear propulsion in space to reach these planets, and it will all be happening quite possibly within a few decades. He is thus worried that Cueball will miss all of this ongoing excitement. | In summary, Beret is very excited that we can see (with the Hubble telescope and other earth-bound telescopes) and find exoplanets. Then with some advances in space technology we can create nuclear propulsion in space to reach these planets, and it will all be happening quite possibly within a few decades. He is thus worried that Cueball will miss all of this ongoing excitement. | ||
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==Trivia== | ==Trivia== | ||
| − | *This was the first time Randall released a comic with the exact same name as a previous comic | + | *This was the first time Randall released a comic with the exact same name as a previous comic. Since then, he has done so [[:Category:Comics sharing name|a few times]]. When the next exoplanet comic was released, it caused problems on xkcd as the title of the image file were the same for the two comics. This was resolved by renaming this comic's image, adding the year of its release to the title: <code>explanets_2010</code>. This was two years before the next one. |
| − | + | *Cueball is not completely visible in this comic, and the last image only shows a face. Given that all characters without a beard have the same face, this could have been any character, including one with a hat (which could be lying on the bed stand next to the bed) or hair (although the comic's official transcript refers to this person as "bed man", meaning it is not a female character). As it is easier to explain the comic using Cueball's name and given that he is the usual guy to draw when no features are needed, it still makes sense to call him Cueball in this comic. | |
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| − | *Cueball is not completely visible in this comic, and the last image only shows a face. Given that | ||
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
