Explorers on the Moon

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Image:Tintin cover - Explorers on the Moon.jpg

Explorers on the Moon (On a marché sur la 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 a hero. It is the second part of a two-part adventure begun in Destination Moon.

First published in 1954, Explorers on the Moon is the seventeenth in the series.

The storyline

The story continues from Destination Moon. Calculus is taking Tintin, Tintin's dog Snowy, Haddock and his assistant Frank Wolff to the moon in his rocket.

At least he thinks that's all: but soon the Thompson twins come up from the hold. They had got the time of the launch wrong. Calculus is concerned at the effect this will have on their air supplies; Haddock is furious, and lambasts the Thompson twins for being too imbecilic to understand the difference between 1:34 a.m. and 1:34 p.m.

The journey to the Moon is not uneventful--Haddock has smuggled some whisky in hollowed-out books, becomes drunk, and almost drifts off into space after some unscheduled extravehicular activity. Tintin must also don a space suit to fetch him, and, in a very rare display of temper, lashes out at the Captain, declaring that the latter's recklessness has "nearly cost us our lives." When the rocket must temporarily halt in order to execute the turnaround maneuver that will enable it to land on the moon right side up, the momentary lack of natural gravity also poses problems for Haddock, who neglects to put on his magnetic-soled boots in time.

Additionally, the Thompson twins suffer one of their periodic relapses of the condition caused by their ingestion of the energy-multiplying substance Formula Fourteen (see Land of Black Gold). As a result, they sprout thick hair that grows at lightning speed and frequently changes colour. The Captain, having no other immediate duty, volunteers to cut their hair, but can scarcely keep up with it, and begins to suffer blisters from the scissors. He remarks sarcastically that in future, when people ask him what he did on the rocket, he will reply, "Me? I was the hairdresser." Gradually, however, the twins' condition abates, and their appearances begin to return to normal.

Upon arrival, Tintin sets foot on the Moon - the first human to do so. Everyone gets a chance to walk about; even the Captain enjoys it, but upon seeing the Earth, expresses fear about whether they will survive ever to see it again. Later, the Captain, Wolff and Tintin take the battery-powered tank to explore some stalactite caves; Snowy falls on an ice sheet, damaging his two-way radio and there is a minor drama in rescuing him, but they return to the rocket safely. Tintin decides to rest up and have lunch with Wolff while the Captain, the twins and Calculus go out in the tank again.

Now danger is looming. A secret agent from a foreign power, Colonel Jorgen, whom Tintin had previously encountered in King Ottokar's Sceptre, has been hiding in the rocket. It turns out that Wolff has gambling debts, and has been forced to aid Jorgen and his backers involuntarily. Tintin goes below to fetch some supplies for lunch, and Jorgen overpowers him and tries to take over the rocket, leaving our heroes marooned on the Moon, and fly it back to his own country. Outside, from the tank, the Captain, the Thompsons and Calculus watch, horrified, as the rocket blasts off, shuts down, and, for one horrible moment, appears to be on the verge of capsizing before coming to rest right-side up. Tintin has freed himself and succeeded in defeating the plot, but in order to do so has been forced to sabatoge the rocket to prevent Jorgen's attempted liftoff. After the group interrogates Jorgen, Tintin eventually locks the spy in the hold, against protests by the Captain that they won't have enough oxygen to last the way home unless they leave him on the Moon or kill him.

Due to the strain on the oxygen supplies, the crew decides to abandon some of the equipment, rather than dissembling it and packing it up, and to cut short the lunar stay. Even so, shortly before take-off, the Captain becomes the first among them to experience a bout of dizziness due to build-up of carbon dioxide. The lift-off is successful, despite concerns about repairs necessitated by Tintin's sabatoging of Jorgen's illicit take-off attempt. But the rocket is off-course, and by the time the crew awake from the liftoff-induced blackout and correct it, they have lost additional time and consumed yet more oxygen.

Halfway back to Earth, Jorgen escapes after overpowering the Thompsons, who had gotten the idea into their heads that handcuffs would be more secure than the Captain's knots. When Wolff sees that Jorgen intends to shoot Tintin and the others, a struggle ensues, and the gun goes off accidentally; Jorgen is shot right through the heart and dies instantly. The crew have no choice but to consign the body to space. However, even without Jorgen, now there isn't enough oxygen to make it home. Later, they wake up to find that Wolff has committed suicide by leaving the ship, leaving a moving goodbye note explaining that he felt responsibility for their predicament and wanted to save everyone else's lives.

The rest of the group continues towards the Earth, as their oxygen runs low. Everyone is falling unconscious. Tintin faints but mission control sounds a siren which awakens him to be able to get the ship set up to land. After the ship lands, firemen break the door open, finding everyone unconscious. On the tarmac, a doctor is giving a prostate Haddock oxygen, but fears that the Captain's heart is worn out because "It seems he was a great whisky drinker." Suddenly roused by the sound of the word "whiskey", Captain Haddock wakes up with a start. Everyone rejoices and a ground crew memeber returns with a bottle of whisky. Calculus gives a toast which includes his hopes for a return to the moon. The Captain gets furious and promptly walks away resulting with a trip and a fall over a stretcher in the midst of declaring that "Man's proper place. . .is on dear old Earth." And with that the book ends.

Trivia and errors

Although highly praised for its scientific accuracy (see Destination Moon), this book does have oddities:

• Seen from the moon, the earth has no clouds at all;

• Haddock, a renowned drunkard, is an odd choice for such a delicate mission;

• when he drives the lunar tank Tintin admits that it is the first time he has ever done so. Driving such a machine would have required a certain amount of training in the months before the launch.

Template:Tintin bookses:Aterrizaje en la Luna fr:On a marché sur la Lune id:Penjelajahan di Bulan nl:Mannen op de maan (Kuifje) sv:Månen tur och retur (del 2)