1337: Hack

2014-03-03T17:37:24Z

Dstigant: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1337
| date = March 3, 2014
| title = Hack
| image = hack.png
| titletext = HACK THE STARS
}}
<noinclude>:''"1337", this comic's number, redirects here. For the 2007 storyline of the same name, starting with [[341|comic 341]], see [[:Category:1337]].''</noinclude>

==Explanation==
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[[wikipedia:ISEE-3/ICE|ISEE-3/ICE]] is a spacecraft launched August 12, 1978. The original mission was to study the interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind. It was later sent to visit Comet Giacobini-Zinner and became the first spacecraft to do so by flying through a comet's tail. Its trajectory will bring it close to Earth on August 2014. A status check of the spacecraft has revealed that many of its instruments are still working and that it contains plenty of fuel. But the hardware to communicate with ISEE-3/ICE has been decommissioned and it will be expensive to reestablish the communication needed to use the spacecraft for another mission. See also http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/02070836-isee-3.html

The characters Crash and Burn (and also Zero Cool, known for his catchphrase "Mess with the best, die like the rest") are an allusion to the 1995 movie [[wikipedia:Hackers (film)|Hackers]]. Since the movie predates the shutdown-signal (1997), the characters should both possess the skills and 'outdated' equipment to understand and hack the signal to the probe.

The title text "Hack the stars" is also an allusion to the movie [[wikipedia:Hackers (film)|Hackers]] where the Phrase "Hack the Planet!" is used on multiple occasions.

There are several pools in the movie as well. There is a subplot involving a mythical pool on the roof of the high school where several of the characters are students. In addition, there is a party at an apartment that has a pool on a roof. The characters in the comic are floating in a pool similar to this.

The number of the comic is also significant, in that 1337 is a common numeric form of [[wikipedia:Leet|l33t]], again refering to hackers.

==Transcript==
:[Panel 1 shows an image of the ISEE-3/ICE spacecraft]
:Narration: The ISEE-3/ICE probe was launched in 1978. Its mission ended in 1997 and it was sent a shutdown signal.
:Narration: In 2008, we learned-to our surprise-that the probe didn't shut down. It's still running and it has plenty of fuel. ...and in 2014, its orbit brings it near earth.
:[Panel 3 shows Megan and Ponytail talking to each other.]
:Megan: We could send it on a new mission... Except we no longer have the equipment to send commands to it.
:Ponytail: Can't we...
:Megan: NASA won't rebuild it. "Too Expensive"
:Ponytail: Seriously?
:Megan: I know, right? So the Internet found the specs and we went to work.
:[Panel 5 shows Megan and Ponytail have walking into an area where a girl and Cueball both are sitting at desks looking at laptops.]
:Narration: We've convinced them to give us time on the Madrid DSN transmitter and hacked the maser to support the uplink. And today's the big day.
:Cueball: Transmitting... We have a signal! We have control!
:Megan: OK, transmit the new comet rendezvous maneuver sequen-
:[Cueball, off panel]: What the hell?
:Megan: What?
:Cueball: My console went dead!
:Girl: Mine too!
:Megan: What's happening?!
:Cueball: There's a new signal going out over the transmitter!
:[Megan, off panel]: A bug?
:Cueball: Someone else is in the system!
:Girl: Kill the connection!
:[Cueball, off panel]: I can't find it!
:Girl: They're firing the probe's engines!
:[Cueball, off panel]: NO!
:[Megan, off panel]: Who's doing this?? Stop them!
:[Girl, off panel]: I'm trying!
:Cueball, pointing to his screen: Look! My screen!
:[Text, on Cueball's laptop screen]: M-E-S-S-W-I-T-H-T-H-E-B-E-S-T D-I-E-L-I-K-E-T-H-E-R-E-S-T
:[Panel 13 shows two people in a pool at night.]
:[Panel 14 zooms out to reveal the pool is on top of a skyscraper in a vertically developed, downtown setting.]
:Burn: Crash?
:Crash: Yeah, Burn?
:Burn: Make a wish.

[Panel 16 shows the spacecraft streaking across the sky, indistinguishable from a meteoroid.]

{{comic discussion}}

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1337: Hack