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| Europa Missions |
 Title text: Before resurfacing, they promise to inspect the ice for any evidence of hockey-playing life. |
Explanation
In recent years, NASA has sent several spacecraft into space in order to make unmanned missions to distant planets in order to provide data and take photos for scientists back on earth. This comic shows several spacecraft being sent to observe Jupiter’s moon Europa. According to NASA, the moon could be a candidate for life, so it would make sense that the scientists would send spacecraft to observe it. The first 2 crafts investigate the ocean, topography and chemistry of the planet, which would be useful in determining signs of life. (Europa’s ocean is frozen on the top, which is why they say subsurface ocean.)
A Zamboni is a vehicle that, rather than transport, is meant to quickly resurface ice rinks after hockey games. The comic talks about a hypothetical spacecraft carrying a Zamboni because the National Hockey League wants to expand their games to Europa due to the surface of the moon’s oceans being completely covered in ice. Hockey in reduced gravity would be an interesting idea. The title text talks about finding hockey playing life on Europa, which would be unlikely, as the life on earth and Europa are completely separate cultures, so even if the life on Europa does have its own forms of entertainment similar to sports, it would be unlikely that the sports played have even remotely similar rules or equipment.
Transcript
- [Cueball's upper body is shown; he is in front of an image of a spacecraft.]
- Cueball: There are now three spacecraft headed to Europa:
- Cueball: NASA's Europa Clipper, which investigate Europa's subsurface ocean,
- [In a longer shot, Cueball, Ponytail, and Hairy are all shown standing in front of another spacecraft image, with Cueball gesturing at it.]
- Cueball: ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, which will study the topography and chemistry of Europa and the other moons,
- [Another closeup on Cueball, who is in front of an image of a Zamboni with a firing rocket nozzle on its bottom.]
- Cueball: And the NHL's Zamboni Voyager, which plans to resurface Europa.
- Voice out of frame: Oh no.
- Cueball: We tried to stop them, but the league is set on an expansion.
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