786: Exoplanets - Revision history

82.132.236.152: /* Explanation */ visually they look identical, but this is more the exact target page name

2026-04-13T09:26:25Z

‎Explanation: visually they look identical, but this is more the exact target page name

DKMell: minor fixes

2026-04-13T06:13:49Z

minor fixes

FaviFake: added Category:Comics edited after their publication using HotCat trivia

2025-02-15T14:31:05Z

added Category:Comics edited after their publication using HotCat trivia

Firestar233 at 23:08, 14 February 2025

2025-02-14T23:08:43Z

CalibansCreations: /* Explanation */

2024-12-02T08:03:45Z

‎Explanation

The-Ergster at 02:45, 2 December 2024

2024-12-02T02:45:50Z

WriterArtistCoder: Linked to other mention of Project Orion in #2423

2024-05-02T01:31:38Z

Linked to other mention of Project Orion in #2423

172.71.178.139: /* Trivia */

2023-07-22T21:23:25Z

‎Trivia

FaviFake: Better + grammar

2023-07-22T11:34:46Z

Better + grammar

172.70.162.158: /* Trivia */

2023-07-21T15:40:16Z

‎Trivia

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 ==Explanation==
-[[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|exoplanets}}", 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", 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}} (which is later mentioned in [[2423: 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. However, if an asteroid mining project were to be started, the Orion drive spacecraft, the nuclear bombs, and all the infrastructure needed to staff, 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.

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 ==Explanation==
-[[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|exoplanets}}", 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}} (which is later mentioned in [[2423: 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.
+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}} (which is later mentioned in [[2423: 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. However, if an asteroid mining project were to be started, the Orion drive spacecraft, the nuclear bombs, and all the infrastructure needed to staff, 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.
-Cueball would just rather snooze, as he is not impressed. Beret Guy gives him only one snooze because as is apparent in the title text he is afraid that Cueball will be left behind if he snoozes too long! Giving the fact that he just stated that it may take hundreds of years this is of course silly but fits well with Beret Guy's behavior.
+Cueball would just rather snooze, as he is not impressed. Beret Guy gives him only one snooze because as is apparent in the title text he is afraid that Cueball will be left behind if he snoozes too long! Given the fact that he just stated that it may take hundreds of years, this is of course silly, but fits well with Beret Guy's behavior.
-Exoplanets have been discovered starting in 1996, but there are still only a few confirmed {{w|List of habitable planet candidates|planet candidates}} in the habitable zone at a distant star. This did change fast after that time since new ways of finding planets are created — see [[1071: Exoplanets]], which was posted with the same title. At that point, there were exactly 786 Exoplanets confirmed — the number of this comic - probably not a coincidence when it comes to [[Randall]].
+Exoplanets have been discovered starting in 1996, but there are still only a few confirmed {{w|List of habitable planet candidates|planet candidates}} in the habitable zone of a distant star. This did change fast after that time since new ways of finding planets are created — see [[1071: Exoplanets]], which has the same title. At that point, there were exactly 786 Exoplanets confirmed — the number of this comic, which is probably not a coincidence as done by [[Randall]].
 Part of the humor of this particular strip is that Beret Guy seems to have a sense of urgency and immediacy about something that is actually occurring at a snail's pace over decades, where Cueball finishing sleeping, or hitting snooze twice, couldn't possibly make one crystalline erg of difference.

@@ Line 46: / Line 46: @@
 *Cueball is not completely visible in this comic, and the last image only shows a face. Given that almost all characters without a beard have the same face, this could be any character, including one with a hat (which could be hidden or outside of the frames) or hair (several of the usual styles). The comic's official transcript refers to this person as "bed man", meaning it isn't intended to be 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 particular features are added, it still makes sense to call him Cueball in this comic.
 {{comic discussion}}
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 [[Category:Nuclear weapons]]
 [[Category:Rockets]]

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 {{comic
 | number    = 786
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 [[Category:Astronomy]]
 [[Category:Exoplanets]]
 [[Category:Nuclear weapons]]
 [[Category:Rockets]]

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 [[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}} (which is later mentioned in [[2423: 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.
+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}} (which is later mentioned in [[2423: 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.

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:45, 2 December 2024
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	[[Category:Comics sharing name\|Exoplanets01]]		[[Category:Comics sharing name\|Exoplanets01]]
	[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]		[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]
		+	[[Category:Rockets]]

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 * The number of this comic ([[786: Exoplanets]]) is the same number of planets featured in the comic [[1071: Exoplanets]] (786 planets) with the same title. It isn't clear whether this is a coincidence or Randall purposefully waited for the number of discovered planets to be the same as this comic's number.
-*Cueball is not completely visible in this comic, and the last image only shows a face. Given that almost all characters without a beard have the same face, this could be any character, including one with a hat (which could be hidden or outside of the frames) or hair (several of the usual styles). The comic's official transcript refers to this person as "bed man", meaning it's at least 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 particular features are added, it still makes sense to call him Cueball in this comic.
+*Cueball is not completely visible in this comic, and the last image only shows a face. Given that almost all characters without a beard have the same face, this could be any character, including one with a hat (which could be hidden or outside of the frames) or hair (several of the usual styles). The comic's official transcript refers to this person as "bed man", meaning it isn't intended to be 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 particular features are added, it still makes sense to call him Cueball in this comic.
 {{comic discussion}}