I knew it! There must’ve been some reason we never went back.
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Click to see the whole comic.
Tip o’ the spacesuit visor to BABloggee Michael Taylor.
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About Bad Astronomy
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.
The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.
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February 9th, 2009 at 11:31 am
I saw that comic and wanted to forward it to you, but didn’t know how to contact you for that. How does one submit such things for your consideration?
February 9th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Ah, it’s good to see the youth of America learning from their Elders (even if they are crazy old coots!).
February 9th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Good one!
February 9th, 2009 at 11:40 am
FYI Phil, the first link (text, not picture) doesn’t work.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Alan Shepard roused the angry Lunar Monster? Big mistake. It could take years to smooth over that diplomatic mess…
February 9th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
If only Alan had hooked instead of sliced…
February 9th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
A rare Non Sequitur that was actually funny. That strip has a very large pool of “teh suke” but every now and again he comes up with a gem.
February 9th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
: “FYI Phil, the first link (text, not picture) doesn’t work.”
I checked the source code and it appears that Phil has left out the opening double-quotation mark at the URL within the HTML tags.
February 9th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
That’s what bad golfiquette gets you – obviously he should have yelled “Fore!”
[More so, as in the comic's world the hit made a sound. Sort of funny, sort of sucks.]
February 9th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I don’t know what the lunar monster has to be mad about. NASA left behind those cool lunar rovers for the monsters to tool around in. If anything, they should be paying rental fees.
February 9th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
I’ve always wondered why the “We never went to the moon” conspiracy theory gets so much more traction than the “We met aliens on the moon” conspiracy theory.
February 9th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
@Evolving Squid
My family adores Non Sequitur, but for some reason it’s hit and miss with me.
February 9th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
“…in the comic’s world the hit made a sound.”
Well, maybe it did – sound would travel through the golf club and suit. It didn’t appear to make any noise when hitting the alien. So I say it’s accurate!
This was about the best counter-arguement for moon-hoax conspiracists yet! We went there, but we didn’t go back because…
February 9th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
So we meet the hoaxers halfway: Apollo 11, 12, and 14 were real, but 15, 16, and 17 were fake. On account of the angry moon monster.
February 9th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
…And he’s using the club one handed.
February 9th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
@Evolving Squid,
I really used to enjoy it a lot. This was before it changed format. It used to be single panel social commentary, and then it jumped the shark.
February 10th, 2009 at 3:26 am
@ Mount:
Al Shepard actually couldn’t get both hands on the club (which was actually his geology hammer – he could slip in a golf ball as a “personal effect” but not a golf club), due to the constraints of the EVA suit he was wearing.
February 10th, 2009 at 6:15 am
Ah! If only they’d played cricket on the Moon instead!
February 10th, 2009 at 6:25 am
Coem to think of it, I’d really love to see cricket and a few other sports on the Moon – thinking of the low gravity & itsimplications -divingand ski -jumping would be even more spectacular!
Surfing – now just think of the waves if we could get a lunar sea actually
filled with water – larger tides caused by Earth’s greater mass (right?) & lower gravity combined … wipeout could be fun!
On the other altitude mounatineering could get particularly interesting too
and scenic~ally different even if the lunar mountains aren’t as jagged as we might prefer.
Lunar javelin and archery would sure go further too!
Cover over a lunar crater & turn it into a low-gee sports area I say!
Of course the luge and bobcat (winter games) wouldn’t be quite as good although gymnastics could get some real high flying done .. thinking of which I understand we could almost kinda fly on the moon yes?
But golf though … Nah, doesn’t really float my boat …
February 10th, 2009 at 6:32 am
Nigel Depledge said on Feb 10th, 2009 at 3:26 am :
“Al Shepard actually couldn’t get both hands on the club which was actually his geology hammer –
hah – shepherd should’ve followe dhgis golfd up witha hammer throw! Now that really could’ve annoyed the mythical moon monster!
(Pictures cartoon sequence
Snoozingmoon monster : -bonk! Golf ball.
Monster : Huh? What the …
WHACK! Geology hammer to eye.
Monster : AAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!! RRRRROOOOOAAAARRR!
Alan Shepherd Jr and Edgar Mitchell : Yahhhhh! Run-away! Run-away!
Edgar Mitchell aside : See I told yuz they wuz monsterous forms of life out there!
(It was Edgar Mitchell with Shepherd on Apollo 14 yes?
Pretty sure ’twas.)
February 10th, 2009 at 6:46 am
Alan Shepard actually sliped the “head” from a golf club as well as two golf balls into his personal effects. (I think it was a 6 iron) he attached the club head onto the lunar sample scoop handle.
February 10th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Despite the lack of an atmosphere, I would still manage to slice the ball
February 10th, 2009 at 9:14 am
^ Swing backhanded. Seriously. Make your swing feel like you are winding up for a tennis backhand and your slice will go away.
It’s how I dropped my handicap from 22 to 11.
February 10th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Yes – Apollo 14 crew was Alan Shepherd Jr, Edgar Mitchell who both walked on the Moon & in the Command module orbiting above Stuart Roosa. (The Apollo 14 LEM was named ‘Antares’ & the CSM ‘Kitty Hawk.’)
Wikipage linked to here on my name – click it to visit the Apollo 14 Wikipage.
From there :
Shepard brought a makeshift six iron golf club and two golf balls to the Moon, and took several swings (one-handed, due to the limited flexibility of the EVA suit). He exuberantly, and somewhat whimsically, exclaimed that the second ball went “miles and miles and miles” in the lunar gravity, but later estimated it actually went 200 to 400 yards (180 to 365 meters). Mitchell then used a lunar scoop handle as a javelin, creating the first ‘Lunar Olympics’.
& another oddly appealing thing :
Roosa, who worked in forestry in his youth, took several hundred tree seeds on the flight. These were germinated after return to earth, and widely distributed around the world as commemorative Moon Trees.
There’s an article via Wikipedia’s Apollo-14 page on those moon-trees too.
Edgar Mitchell is now the sole surviving member of that team. Wonder if he was as loopy then and discussed all his new age & UFO-ology stuff with his companions? Plus, if so, what they thought of it … ?
February 11th, 2009 at 3:24 am
Chuck said:
I stand corrected.
This is what happens when I write from memory instead of actually looking up the facts. D’oh!
February 11th, 2009 at 3:29 am
StevoR said:
If I understand correctly, he kept quiet about all that stuff.
Was Ed Mitchell not the guy who conducted an ESP experiment from the CSM on the way to the moon? If so, he actually waited until both his crewmates were asleep before doing it (or, rather, it was scheduled to happen during a sleep period, and he stayed up late to do his experiment). Guess what? The result was negative, but that didn’t stop anyone from believing in ESP.
February 11th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
No doubt if Edgar Mitchell had espoused his new age and UFOlogy beliefs openly, Doctor Bellows would have had him grounded.