Comic: Harpoons

http://xkcd.com/1402/

created by Smashman2004 on 01/08/2014 at 10:58 UTC

162 upvotes, 9 top-level comments (showing 9)

Comments

Comment by Mutoid at 01/08/2014 at 14:26 UTC

43 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Just wait until the year 3000 when the whalers get to the moon.

Comment by jardeon at 01/08/2014 at 12:37 UTC

42 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Rosetta's last words: "from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."

Comment by deadowl at 01/08/2014 at 14:45 UTC*

23 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Still trying to figure out the Apollo 12 Rum Incident

Found this[1] searching for "Apollo 12 incident" but it's probably not related.

1: http://www.universetoday.com/98484/this-day-in-space-history-apollo-12-and-sce-to-aux/

Edit 1: The lightning that struck Apollo 12 supposedly went all the way down to the launcher. I'm wondering ifRUM could be an acronym for something now.

Edit 2: It was called The Yankee Clipper and landed on the part of the moon called The Ocean of Storms.

Edit 3: There are transcripts here[2], but I can't find any specific mention of 'rum' or 'harpoon' in the first two (using Ctrl+F)

2: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/apollo12.htm

Comment by Nimos at 01/08/2014 at 13:55 UTC

15 upvotes, 0 direct replies

some people create a post on r/TIL, some publish a webcomic

Comment by zombiepiratefrspace at 01/08/2014 at 11:55 UTC

28 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Actually, there might be an unknown number of re-used steel that was formerly part of harpoons in space.

I read in a book[1] that some space-faring instrumentation is made from the salvaged metal of pre-WW2 German battleships, because the amount of radioactive contaminants in steel has been significantly increased since atmospheric nuclear weapons tests have started. So pre-WW2 steel creates less noise in the instruments.

Some harpoons could have made their way in via the battleship route.

[1] Not sure, either "Atomic" by Jim Baggott or "Atomic Awakening" by James Mahaffey

Comment by xkcd_bot at 01/08/2014 at 10:59 UTC

16 upvotes, 0 direct replies

*Mobile Version![1]**

1: http://m.xkcd.com/1402/

Direct image link: Harpoons

*Title text:** To motivate it to fire its harpoons hard enough, Rosetta's Philae lander has been programmed to believe it is trying to kill the comet.

Don't get it? explain xkcd[2]*

2: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1402

I almost beat the turing test! Maybe next year. (Sincerely, xkcd_bot.)