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The "Moon" Books: Hergé's scientific research?

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Harrock n roll
Moderator
#11 · Posted: 9 Apr 2005 19:58
It should also be remembered that Von Braun was questioned in the 1960s over his involvement with the Mittelwerk factory, where the V-2 rockets where built, in which 20,000 slave workers died. Something the Americans conveniently overlooked when they took all those scientists to continue their work.

"Once the rockets are up who cares where they come down?
That's not my department, says Wernher von Braun..."
edcharlesadams
Trivia Challenge Score Keeper
#12 · Posted: 9 Apr 2005 20:04
Harrock n roll:
Von Braun was questioned in the 1960s over his involvement with the Mittelwerk factory

Yes, he was rather a controversial character from all angles it seems.

Harrock n roll:
Once the rockets are up who cares where they come down?

Good old Tom Lehrer!
Don't say that he's hypocritical. Say rather, that he's - apolitical...

Ed
tintinuk
Moderator Emeritus
#13 · Posted: 9 Apr 2005 20:24
Heh heh - I know this is off-topic, but Tom Lehrer is a genius, isn't he ? ;o) I always laugh at The Elements, the wonderful So Long, Mom and more modern efforts such as Microsoft Christmas!

Moderator Note: Microsoft Christmas is a Lehrer pastiche, done in the manner of the master, but isn't by him, it's by computer journalist, author and Broadway musician, David Pogue (who claimed at an event I once attended that he has it written into his contract that he has to be permitted to perform a song at the end of every appearance)...
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#14 · Posted: 9 Apr 2005 20:26
I suppose it could be said that there were similarities between Hergé and Von Braun, in that they were so intent on acheiving their respective goals, that the ends somehow justified the means...?

To quote Professor Calculus: "It goes without saying that all the research is for humanitarian purposes... No question of making atomic bombs here... In fact, we are seeking a way to protect mankind from the dangers of these weapons..."

Ahh! If only it could be like that in real life...!
yamilah
Member
#15 · Posted: 9 Apr 2005 20:52
Considering Hergé's scientific knowledge, how come the serialization of Explorers of the Moon included a nonsensical scene with the Thom(p)sons' hair thrown into space out of a non-pressurized window, with Tintin and Snowy around but without any space suit, as if it were a 19th century science fiction story?
Funny "fault", isn't it?
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#16 · Posted: 9 Apr 2005 22:27
yamilah:
Funny "fault", isn't it?

Hmm.. I always thought that the "window" you refer to was a mini air-lock.
Haddock is seen putting the hair inside, he closes the hatch and then presses a button which I assume was to open the outer door.
yamilah
Member
#17 · Posted: 11 Apr 2005 11:50
Thanks Harrock n roll for your answer.
The original scene legible in the 'Journal Tintin' might actually not be available in the UK, but you can find it in the book Nous Tintin (published by Telerama in 2004).

It shows Tintin, catching hold of Snowy (who is snagged in the Thom(p)son's hair) by his tail at the last second through a plain window, both of them hanging out of the moon rocket in the outer space, without wearing any space suit nor having the slightest oxygen supply...

Astounding, isn't it?
Can anyone explain that strange scene in a sensible way?
jock123
Moderator
#18 · Posted: 11 Apr 2005 12:13
I've seen the deleted pages from the Moon books in the past, but don't recognize the bit that you mention... Do you mean that you actually see an image from outside the rocket of Tintin and Snowy? Or stars through the "window" from inside?

If not, it is as Harrock says - what you are calling the "window" is a hatch into a small, dark, air-lock, which is sealed when it closes, before ejecting the contents into space.

I mean, where would the window be exactly? It isn't on the plan, or Hergé's moon-rocket model used for creating the albums; it is, however, conceivable that there is a hatch in the plating for such a small air-lock...
edcharlesadams
Trivia Challenge Score Keeper
#19 · Posted: 11 Apr 2005 13:37
This episode has appeared in the UK, in The Making of Tintin: Mission to the Moon (which shows it up to where Snowy is being loaded into the air-lock) and Hergé and Tintin: Reporters, which shows the rest of the sequence where Tintin does appear to leap out of the rocket and catch him.

I see what you're saying yamilah, and to me it's just an indication of why Hergé cut it out. Perhaps the serialisation represented a place for Hergé to play with ideas to some extent, and if in retrospect he felt they didn't work, they wouldn't make the final version.

Ed
jock123
Moderator
#20 · Posted: 11 Apr 2005 14:01
Thanks, Ed, for the update.

I think you'd have to bear in mind that it is possible for someone to survive, albeit for a very brief time, in vacuum - to the extent that it was thought possible in the past that it could be used in an evacuation drill by NASA.

Think of the sequence in 2001, which was very firmly rooted in what was taken as fact for the time, where the astronaut breaks back into the Discovery, making a leap from his pod to the ship without a helmet, and you will get the idea.

Perhaps Hergé was aware of the possibility, but he (or even the science of the day) misconstrued the extent to which it would be feasible, and removed it when his version was seen to be implausible?

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