User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape Speed

Planets

Planets and Planet-like Objects
Name	Tiles (X, Y)	Directions	Description	Explanation
Starting Planet tiny-world	(6024, -8976)	To get here, click the "Home" button in the lower right corner of the comic.	The planet is tiny, grassy, has a few trees and bushes and features several people. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement.	This is where the game starts. Pressing the "Home" button to go back to the starting planet shows the message, "Welcome back, pilot", which may be a reference to the greeting that plays when re-entering a Titan in the Titanfall video games.
Origin origin	(3096, -5904)	To get here, launch from Beret Guy saying "Wow!" on the Starting Planet.	The planet is fairly big, has vegetation, and features many people, landscape objects, items and upgrades. It has a shaft through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any upgrades unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the middle of it. Many of the landmarks of the surface mark the directions to different planets.	The planet has a sign saying 'Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™'. The name may also refer to the fact that the planet lies almost at the center of the game world, or that it is the starting point for exploration as it provides many navigational hints.
Hollow Planet hollow-shell	(-13952, 1848)	To get here, launch from the St. Louis Arch on Origin.	The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are a few signs that mark the directions to different planets.
Round Planet orb	(-19154, -7288)	To get here, launch from the tower with an orb on it on Origin or the sign on the Hollow Planet.	The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. It also features a few people and items.
Uzumaki uzumaki	(-3904, -26904)	To get here, launch from Origin's spiral landmark, the sign on the Hollow Planet, or below the plane-towed banner on the Round Planet.	The planet is a large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity.	The shape of the planet is inspired by the manga Uzumaki by Junji Ito.
Guitar Ship guitar-ship	(-12000, -30000)	To get there, launch from Uzumaki, a little to the left of the caffeine molecule item.	The planet is shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. Within the dome there's the Boston skyline.	This is a reference to the cover art of the album Boston by the like-named American rock band. It's one of many references to Boston in the game.
Spacetime Soccer Field soccerfield	(6048, 4048)	To get here, launch from Origin, from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top of it.	This is a tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines, but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice, joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines. The center circle appears as two separate halves stemming from the two copies of the halfway line.	The space soccer field utilizes the concept from 2705: Spacetime Soccer, but inversed: in the original comic the center point of the field was located in a gravity well, causing the ball to be pulled away from the goals; here the goals are located close to the center of the planet, so the ball naturally tries to fall towards them, probably making the game more interesting.
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Objects

Features and Items
Planet	Type	Location	Description / Message	Explanation
Starting Planet	Message	Above starting position	Wheeee!	Probably reflects the excitation of a new visitor to this XKCD comic, seeing a promising game.
	Item	Above ground left of the starting position	a rock with neat stripes
	Item	In the grass right of the starting position	a cool bug	A reference to 'Cool Bug Epoch' from 2240: Timeline of the Universe
	Item	Up a tree	a pretty leaf
	People	On the opposite of the starting position	Beret Guy pointing his arm up and exclaiming WOW!	This is a reference to the title text of 1117: My Sky, and it could also be a reference to 502: Dark Flow.
Origin	Landscape	Close to the Starting Planet	A sign saying: Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™	The sign names the planet, and also indicates that it is not possible to leave it by just launching off the surface during early gameplay, when the player has not collected any upgrades. May be a reference to the song by The Eagles: "Hotel California".
	Message	Right of the welcome sign, above the rollercoaster	Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!	A hint for the hidden shaft going through the planet; one of the entries is right below here.
	Landscape	On the right side of the rollercoaster	A sign saying: Caution: Long vertical drop	Another hint for the hidden shaft.
	Landscape	To the right of the rollercoaster	A spider-shaped monument	Marks the direction to the Giant Spider planet
	Landscape	To the right of the spider monument	A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. Receiving transmission.	Marks the direction to Voyager 2. The message is an additional hint as radio telescopes are often used to communicate with distant space probes, including receiving probes' measurements and other scientific data, like photos.
	People	Right next to the cell tower	Cueball and White Hat talking. Cueball: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...	Voyager spacecraft are not among the speed record holding space probes as of 2023, however they are the first in history to reach Solar System's escape velocity. They have also executed two gravity assist maneuvers each, so they are good examples on how to increase speed in this way, presumably allowing them to "teach" another spacecraft how to increase speed. Cueball's metaphor goes on to having to meet (catch up with) someone in order to learn something from him. The Voyagers are currently the farthest man-made objects in space; however in the game world they are quite close to the Origin planet. This is also a hint regarding the upgrades located near both Voyager spacecraft, which add more thrust to the player's ship than regular thrust upgrades.
	Landscape	To the right from the radio telescope located near the spider monument	A cell tower with 5G antennas. On top of it a strange object is mounted.	The strange object is a downscaled image of cube satellite from 1992: SafetySat. Normally nobody puts cube satellites on top of fixed towers. This landmark shows the direction to the SafetySat "planet".
	Item	Next to the top of the cell tower	a 5G seagull	5G is a modern emerging standard for cellular networks promising really high download speeds and much higher network capacity (i.e. the number of active devices in an area). Probably a reference to 1656: It Begins
	Landscape	To the right from the cell tower	A tyrannosaurus	Marks the direction to the Jurassic Park planet.
	Landscape	Right next to the tyrannosaurus	A St. Louis Arch shaped hole in the ground
	Landscape	To the left of the three pyramids	A monument shaped like a sphere with a "T" on top	This is a miniature of the Andal planet and marks the direction to it.
	Landscape	The leftmost of three pyramids	A pyramid with a soccer ball on top	Marks the direction to the Spacetime Soccer Field.
	People	The middle pyramid	Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it. Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet. Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!	An in-game reference to the fact that the player's ship initially has too little thrust to launch right off the surface of the Origin planet and needs an upgrade to become a "better" spaceship able to visit other planets. On the other hand, all engine upgrades are located off Origin, creating the apparently unsolvable chicken-and-egg problem – unless the player follows other hints and finds a way to escape Origin anyway.
	Landscape	The rightmost of three pyramids	A pyramid with Saturn on top of it	Marks the direction to Saturn.
	People	Next to the pyramid with Saturn on top	Cueball and White Hat talking. Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole! White Hat: Is that... safe? Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.	Normally, it would not be possible to have a real black hole as a museum exhibit.[citation needed] Also, there's a misunderstanding between White Hat and Cueball. White Hat asks if it is safe for the public to keep a black hole in a museum. Cueball thinks White Hat is concerned about safety of the black hole itself, and responds that it is protected from unscrupulous visitors by putting it in a special case. This is an in-game hint regarding the Subway Planet and the black hole present in its tunnels. It's also a reference to the real-world Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
	Landscape	To the right from the pyramids	A monument shaped like Earth's land masses	Marks the direction to the Projection of Earth.
	People	Right next to the Projection of Earth monument	Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.	An in-game reference to the Crystal Sphere, the navigable crack through it and the hint regarding the hyperdrive.
	Landscape	On the left side of the St. Louis Arch	A monument of a strange spaceship	This is a reference to 2630: Shuttle Skeleton and marks the direction to the Shuttle Skeleton planet.
	Landscape	Opposite the rollercoaster	A large arch	This is a reference to the Gateway Arch located in St. Louis, Missouri. Marks the other end of the shaft going through the planet core.
	Message	A sign next to St. Louis Arch's right leg	The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.	The creator of the Arch, Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, reportedly said that the arch symbolizes "the gateway to the West" understood as the American frontier and the expansion of American colonies into the western parts of the continent. In-game, the Arch marks one of the "gateways" into the larger space of the game, namely the exits of the inner shaft, which allows the player to leave Origin by performing the Oberth maneuver (see below for further explanation).
	Upgrade	High above the St. Louis Arch	Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.	Congratulations for getting your orbital mechanics right and skillfully executing Oberth maneuver (see below).
	People	Right next to the St. Louis Arch	Ponytail with a group of three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball. Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.	Ponytail acting as a guide repeats (or reads) to the kids the slogan written on the sign next to the Arch. See above for the explanation of the slogan.
	Landscape	To the right of the St. Louis Arch	A monument with a pear-shaped structure connected to a small sphere	It's a miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking a direction to it.
	Landscape	To the right of the St. Louis Arch	A small structure and a tower with a strange-looking orb on top	Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
	Item	Close to the top of the orb tower.	an orb wren	Wrens are a common family of birds. Their bodies are rather stocky with short wings, sometimes resembling an orb, especially when perched with ruffled feathers such as when enduring cold weather. There's no species actually called an "orb wren".
	Item	Hidden at the base of the orb tower.	11 squares packed into a larger square	A reference to 2740: Square Packing.
	People	To the right of the orb tower	Hairbun and another person. Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.	This is an in-game reference and a hint on how to find Boston and the Subway Planet
	Item	Hidden in a grassy area to the right of the orb tower	a tumbleweed	Tumbleweed is an above-ground part of some species of plants in a form of a round, dense bush, which detaches as the plant dries in the summer season and is pushed by winds, rolling along the landscape.
	Item	Over a grassy area to the right of the orb tower	a marsh wren	Marsh wren is a species of North American songbird.
	People	To the right from the grassy area	A quintet of hairy and bearded or moustached people playing and singing: It's more than a feeling More than a feeling	This is a reference to the popular song "More Than a Feeling" by the Boston rock band. It is also an in-game reference and pun regarding multiple Bostons present.
	Message	Above ground to the right of the musical band	You found a tiny meteorite!	Meteorites are fragments of small celestial bodies that have fallen onto the surface of Earth, surviving a high-speed passage through the atmosphere. Some are really tiny, being a result of a fragmentation of a larger one caused by the forces exerted during atmospherical entry. This particular one has not quite reached the surface, and should be called a meteoroid or a meteor instead.
	Item	High above ground to the right of the musical band	a single grain of salt
	Landscape	Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign	A spiral-shaped monument	Marks the direction to the spiral Uzumaki planet.
	Landscape	Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign	A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. Receiving transmission.	Marks the direction to the Voyager 1. See also the entry on Voyager 2 above.
	People	Next to the voyager 1 radio telescope.	Cueball and Megan. Megan: It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."
	Item	At the left edge of the forest to the left from the welcome sign	a holographic Charizard business card	This is a reference to a particular character from the Pokémon media franchise. Holographic business cards are a fairly novel form of business or personal presentation.
	Item	In the middle of the forest to the left from the welcome sign	a secret glade
	Item	Up the widest tree in the forest to the left from the welcome sign	a normal-looking leaf
	Message	In the exact middle of the planet	Welcome to liminal space
	People	In a chamber next to the planet's center	Megan with her hair floating around her head. Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.	The Oberth effect is a physical phenomenon and orbital maneuver when a spacecraft fires its thrusters as close to the perycenter (the point on the orbit closest to the center of the orbited body) as possible, being deeper in the "gravity well", to gain more kinetic energy than if the same impulse (amount of propellant used and therefore speed difference) has been applied away from the center, in effect using its propellant more effectively. The kinetic energy is what allows a spacecraft to leave the proximity of the orbited body. A special case of such a maneuver may be accelerating in a theoretical shaft going through the core of the body, which is the case simulated in the game. Applying the principle according to Megan's hint the player is able to "swing" the spaceship a few times along the shaft, accelerating close to the center and allowing the "energy" to regenerate while away, and leave Origin in spite off low initial thrust. The fact that inside of a spherical body the gravity of the outer layers cancels out creates a local microgravity environment, causing Megan's hair to freely float around her head.
	Item	In a chamber next to the planet's center	a DVD of The Core (2003)	This is a reference to the 2003 American science fiction disaster film.
Hollow Planet	People	In the hollow center of the planet.	Ponytail and White Hat floating in microgravity. White Hat's hat has come off his head. White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it. Ponytail: Oh, so that's why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.	White Hat experiences a practical application of an unintuitive, and since "weird" in his words, shell theorem, as applied to gravity: that inside a hollow, spherical shell the forces of the gravity exerted by the shell cancel out for every object inside, regardless of its position within. Ponytail gets an epiphany, that it also applies to the gigantic Crystal Sphere surrounding the most part of the world she is in.
	Item + Upgrade	Close to the center of the planet.	a sixth Lagrange point Your thrusters are more efficient now.	Lagrange points are places relative to two heavy bodies orbiting one another, where a third, much lighter body will stay in equilibrium with the large two, orbiting the common center of gravity with the same period and keeping a constant distance from both. There are only five Lagrange points. In theory, a small body located in the center of a hollowed-out massive body will stay put as well (see the previous explanation), creating the sixth Lagrange point; however a hollow massive body can't exist, it will collapse under its own gravity.
	Landscape	On the surface of the planet.	A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: Round Planet	Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
	Item + Upgrade	Over the surface to the right of the Round Planet sign	a glass of heavy water Your engine gets a bit more powerful.	Heavy water is a form of water that contains only deuterium (hydrogen-2) atoms in place of the much more common hydrogen-1 atoms. It is approximately 10% denser than the regular water, hence its name. Heavy water is not normally poured into glasses as for drinking.
	Landscape	On the surface of the planet to the right of the Round Planet sign	A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: EXIT	Marks the direction to the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
	Landscape	Next to the EXIT sign	A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: Uzumaki	Marks the direction to Uzumaki
	Landscape	Across a gap in the surface to the right of the Uzumaki sign	A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: Origin and Subway	Marks the direction to Origin and (not quite precisely) to the Subway Planet.
	Landscape	On the surface opposite the EXIT sign	A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: Earth (compromise projection)	Marks the direction to Projection of Earth.
Round Planet	People	On the middle part of the Great Wall	Cueball and Megan. Cueball: The Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure you can see space from.	This is a pun on the commonly voiced misconception that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object on Earth that can be seen from space (or the Earth's orbit at least).
	Item + Upgrade	To the right of the Great Wall over a field of boulders	a sensible cheese platter Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.	A cheese platter is a common dish served in restaurants as a starter or sometimes as a main dish, as well as a final course in a formal meal (following the sweet, or as an option instead of one) composed of a selection of cheeses served on a large platter. However, often it may just be a random collection of what's available (e.g. a hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue cheese of either hard or soft variety, possibly a small serving of butter; and a selection of crackers that are either far too many or far too few for the other products). A "sensible" plate, i.e. well-composed by a competent chef, might be considered rare.
	Item	Within Stonehenge	a Swatch pop-out wristwatch
	People	To the right of the Stonehenge	Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts	People walking on stilts are a fairly common theme in xkcd. References include 482: Height, 1608: Hoverboard, 1663: Garden, 2603: Childhood Toys, 2669: Things You Should Not Do and possibly other comics (maybe we need a new category).
	Landscape	Next to Hairbun on stilts	Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message: Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!	This is a quote from Star Wars episode V The_Empire_Strikes_Back. In the original context the starships were attacking AT-AT four-legged armored vehicles, trying to immobilize them by entangling their legs. In the game, they are attacking Hairbun on stilts instead.
	Upgrade	Above the middle spaceship attacking Hairbun	Your engine gets a bit more powerful.	A regular engine upgrade.
	People	To the right of the three spaceships	A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.
	Landscape	To the right of the volleyball field	An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it: Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?	A reference to 2757: Towed Message.
	People	To the right of the airplane towing a banner	Beret Guy climbing a cell tower with some fruit hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.
	Landscape	To the right of the cell tower	Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.
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