Destination Moon

Destination Moon (Objectif Lune) is one of a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as hero. Destination Moon is the first part of one of the few multi-book stories in the Tintin series, the other album being 'Explorers on the Moon' (On a marché sur la Lune)

Destination Moon is the sixteenth in the series.

It is one of two Tintin albums that is not a classic adventure romp, the other being 'The Castafiore Emerald' (Les Bijoux de la Castafiore), although it has a classic adventure style subplot involving espionage. Instead, Destination Moon is an often humorous look into moon rocket technology.

Warning: Plot details follow.

Herge was keen to ensure that the books were scientifically accurate (see below), despite being written well over a decade before the 1969 moon landings and before manned space flight.

The rockets used in the two moon exploration Tintin albums bear a striking physical resemblance to V-2 rockets, down to the checkerboard pattern on the hull, that the V-2 designers used to measure the rolling of a rocket during test flights. No separate lunar lander is shown: the whole ship turns about on its axis and lands 'feet down' and returns intact, in stark contrast to the 'leave-bits-behind-everywhere' solution adapted in real life.

The books portray artificial gravity being used on the ship, but at one point this is switched off and the effects of weightlessness are correctly portrayed, including floating spherical liquid.

The space-suits worn are shown as being bulky and having glass fishbowl-like helmets, with bulky backpacks integrated including radio communications with the ship and other astronauts. In all, they bear a very close resemblance to the actual suits worn by Neil Armstrong etc. They are shown as being orange, not white, although this seems a minor point and a colour adopted by workers in many hazardous situations on Earth. The hemets do not have the 'sunglasses' type tint that actual astronauts had, although since this made it easier to draw it is not clear how intentional this is. Herge did well with his efforts showing the humans moving around: Tintin and friends do not walk, but hop in huge jumps, just as the astronauts in the moon landings later did. They have a lunar rover vehicle.

The rocket is described as being nuclear-powered: although nuclear power has made it into space in real life its use on manned ships has not been widespread because of the safety risks. Its use on unmanned probes is already established.

The problems arising from not having enough air for the predicted number of crew also appear for reasons that are explained in the article on Explorers on the Moon.

The only other notable failing comes when the crew look back at earth: they see it correctly, except that there are no clouds.

Bernard Heuvelmans, advisor to Hergé during the creation of the moon exploration albums, originally wrote a script for Destination Moon that played in the USA. Hergé even drew a couple of pages before giving preference to his own story, that takes place in the fictional Slavic country of Syldavia.

Warning: Plot details follow.

The Storyline

In this one, Professor Cuthbert Calculus has been commissioned to build a rocket ship which will fly to the moon. This first installment revolves around Tintin and Captain Haddock travelling to where the Professor is assembling his rocket, as well as the intrigue that surrounds the rocket on their arrival.

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"Destination Moon" is also the title of a song by They Might Be Giants from their 1994 album John Henry.

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