Destination Moon (Tintin) - Representation of Space Travel

Representation of Space Travel

See also: Explorers on the Moon

Destination Moon was written 19 years before the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing and several years before manned space flight. Hergé was keen to ensure that the books were scientifically accurate, based on ideas about space flight then available (see above). Professor Calculus explains that his nuclear rocket engine essentially works like a slowly exploding nuclear fission bomb. The engine is able to withstand the extreme heat and radiation, since it is made of "calculon", a silicon-based, extremely heat-resistant material also invented by the professor. However, the deadly radioactivity produced by the engine would pollute the launch and landing area, hence the rocket is also equipped with a conventional chemical rocket engine. (The X-FLR6 is said to use aniline and nitric acid propellants.) The nuclear engine is only used above 800 km altitude in space and produces a constant acceleration of one Earth gravity.

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