3197: Cost Savings
| Cost Savings |
 Title text: Unfortunately, my scheme to trick NASA has now taken over a decade longer than planned and has run way over budget. |
Explanation
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This is one of 58 incomplete explanations: This page was created by an OVER-BUDGET ORBITER. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
This comic depicts a ridiculous scheme, concocted by Cueball, to dupe various representatives at NASA into doing a menial task for him; specifically, he wants them to build an ordinary shed in his yard. The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) is not associated with hobbyist carpentry and certainly cannot be conventionally ordered to build a shed on a needy citizen's property.[citation needed] Thus, Cueball tries to circumvent the expected barriers to this outcome by masking his true intentions with a long-winded cost-cutting presentation about a proposed satellite launch. Initially, it appears he is suggesting various ways to mitigate the cost/hassle of launching a satellite into orbit. This starts with a lower orbit, which requires less fuel to reach and can bring significant savings per the rocketry equation. Lower orbits can bring challenges due to satellite crowding and (in the extreme case) atmospheric drag.
Cueball soon suggests replacing the satellite with an "aerial platform" (most likely a plane that flies around with the equipment, but weather balloons, blimps, or even helicopters might count). While any atmospheric flight will require some recurring effort to steer and/or repeatedly launch the vehicle, this can indeed cost less than a space launch and communication infrastructure needed to manage a satellite. The tradeoff is that an aerial platform cannot stay up for years like a satellite and cannot see as much of the surface at a given time.
Cueball then suggest reducing the monitoring payload by moving some equipment to a ground location that receives data from the mobile equipment. Such a change might allow the platform to be a drone or balloon, either of which could go further with less weight. Cueball's last, unfinished sentence might be continued as "Additional savings could be achieved by reusing available property instead of buying land. In fact, I have identified a property with room for a structure which would not require any expense apart from construction." Depending on Cueball's level of focus on cost reduction, the end of this reasoning might even lead to "Ditch the satellite idea and just build a shed in my yard".
The title text expands on this theme by implying that Cueball has been attempting this scheme (which may have required extensive effort and connections needed to even be prepared to be seen by the NASA project team with the initial red-herring proposal) for long enough that it mirrors the setbacks a team would experience if they were actually intending to send a satellite into orbit. The James Webb Telescope is one such mission which was very delayed, as already mentioned in prior comics, notably 2014: JWST Delays. The mention of the project being "over budget" implies that NASA was interested enough to assign a budget, but has presumably been delayed by steps such as shed design, environmental review, contractor selection, construction costs, or team reallocation due to shifting priorities.
By taking "over a decade longer than planned", the actual time taken to (not yet) achieve his goal is far longer than it would normally be expected to take to just build a shed without NASA's complicity, excepting perhaps some particularly intransigent zoning laws. The actual delay is unknown but must have been significant. Likewise, the personal costs incurred by Cueball (at a minimum, time and travel) have probably far exceeded what most sheds (and their construction) require, even if the end-goal is a 'free' shed, paid for entirely by NASA.
Transcript
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This is one of 38 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
- [Cueball is standing in front of a framed graph on a wall, pointing at it with a short stick. The graph is a bar graph with steadily decreasing bar heights. Hairy and Megan, seated, are looking on from behind a desk.]
- Cueball: By lowering the planned satellite orbit, we can reduce the size of the launch vehicle required.
- Cueball: We can reduce costs further by eliminating the satellite entirely in favor of an aerial platform.
- Cueball: Some equipment could be moved to a ground-based facility, reducing required aircraft time.
- Cueball: Additional savings could be...
- [Caption below the panel:]
- I'm trying to get NASA to build a shed in my backyard.
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Anyone wanna store some items in my garage? They'll be there... forever! King Pando (talk) 22:41, 21 January 2026 (UTC)
- Can I store nuclear waste in your garage? 185.36.194.156 04:31, 23 January 2026 (UTC)
Anybody know why the random explanation button bias towards the 3000's heavily? 2601:601:8303:1da0:7d1a:4b82:ba3e:3006 (talk) 03:47, 22 January 2026 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- 20 manual iterations, beginning 20260122 1440Z. 0-999 25%, 1000-1999 30%, 2000-2999 40%, 3000-3197 5%, 3000-3999 projected 25%. n is too small, but I don't perceive a bias. 98.97.38.200 14:50, 22 January 2026 (UTC)
- I've also felt this 66.210.7.66 16:02, 22 January 2026 (UTC)
- See "explain xkcd:Community portal/Miscellaneous#Random Explanation Button bias towards newer articles" for some of the prior chat about this. 82.132.246.68 18:47, 22 January 2026 (UTC)
I first thought the joke that we could do anything StarLink does cheaper, simpler, more environmentally friendly and without risking Kessler syndrome by using terrestrial technology (i.e. cables and antennas) if we could just get our heads out of our asses. The shed punchline was a bit of a letdown. --Coconut Galaxy (talk) 07:40, 22 January 2026 (UTC)
- Saturn the Titan lives, and He has commanded us to create a ring system for Planet Earth so that He can feel more at home here. Recreant. 98.97.38.200 14:59, 22 January 2026 (UTC)
"NASA ... certainly cannot be conventionally ordered to build a shed on a needy citizen's property." Wait, what? Haven't you been following the trajectory of the 47th Presidency of these Untied States in North America? 98.97.38.200 15:03, 22 January 2026 (UTC)
- Great, yet another partisan politics interjection in an apolitical discussion. 185.36.194.156 (talk) 04:32, 23 January 2026 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Everything is political. --Coconut Galaxy (talk) 09:08, 23 January 2026 (UTC)
- Congratulations, bystander. 2605:59C8:160:DB08:CCE1:7150:FFF7:5865 12:53, 23 January 2026 (UTC)
- Good, Godwin's law checks off again. Bystanding is my ideological and conscientious choice and should never be shamed upon. I would argue it is exactly the shaming of apolitical people in Nazi Germany that led to the ideological runoff. 35.77.106.171 09:00, 24 January 2026 (UTC)
- I'm not sure that falls under "conventionally ordered". --Coconut Galaxy (talk) 09:08, 23 January 2026 (UTC)
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