History Recap / TintinDestinationMoon

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Calculus is generally very pleasant and friendly. But when Haddock insults his work, he goes berserk. Providing some of the most memorable moments of the issue.

* SwissCheeseSecurity: Averted; Tintin and Haddock have to go through countless security checkpoints to get to the compound, which is even guarded by anti-aircraft guns. Nevertheless the project has somehow been infiltrated...
* {{Unobtainium}}: Professor Calculus has invented a new substance - calculon - which can "resist even the highest temperatures", with which to make the nuclear fission motor for the rocket.

** In relation to the previous point, no test flight was performed before the moon trip, even though the costs of a nuclear-powered single-stage-to-orbit rocket taking off and landing would be relatively low. This means Tintin and company take off without having proved the rocket really has the capabilities to take off smoothly (as in not blowing up, not deviating and crashing, not failing at reaching orbit, not depressurizing, or not losing functionality in space conditions, for instance).
** The Syldavian government allows two civilians with no formal training in space flight and a ''dog'' to be "invited" to take part in the biggest and riskiest attempt at manned space flight ever devised. This wouldn't have been out of place had the story been set in Victorian times a la ''Literature/FromTheEarthToTheMoon'', when the ideal of the GentlemanAdventurer meant many expeditions were privately organized by bored rich men with connections. By the time this story is set in, however, this mentality had been completely phased out and replaced by a more professional approach similar to our modern NASA. Admittedly, Tintin and Haddock aren't that unqualified despite being civilians, as both have previous experience being part of a [[Recap/TintinTheShootingStar successful scientific expedition]], and the book makes it quite clear they weren't so much invited as much as they were recommended by Calculus for being competent and brave, but they are still people who have zero experience with engineering, piloting or using the technology involved in the travel.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary:

After returning to Marlinspike following a trip, Tintin and Haddock are surprised to find that Calculus had mysteriously left some time earlier. They immediately receive a telegram from the Professor explaining that he's in [[{{Ruritania}} Syldavia]] and asking them to join him there. They do so and are led to a heavily guarded scientific research compound, where they are greeted by Calculus' assistant engineer Frank Wolff and the Professor himself. The latter explains that they are in Syldavia's Atomic Research Center, which recruited Calculus for their Astronautical section. Calculus is currently completing plans for a nuclear power rocket that will be able to land on the Moon...and he called Tintin and Haddock so that they will be part of the landing party. Despite both having some misgivings about the plan (especially Haddock) they accept.

Of course, preparing for this [[TechnologyMarchesOn unprecedented and utterly crazy]] venture is not simple or easy. To make matters worse, the preparation is plagued with incidents, ranging from the humorous (the Thompsons, who inexplicably were assigned as security engage in their traditional bungling) to significant (Calculus losing his memory, which puts the whole project in jeopardy though he ends up being cured by Haddock via [[HilarityEnsues ensued hilarity]]) to the serious (Miller, a mysterious spymaster working under an unnamed foreign power is interested in the project and almost succeeds in stealing the prototype rocket, only to be prevented by a SelfDestructMechanism installed at Tintin's suggestion). Despite all this, the rocket is completed and is successfully launched, with Tintin, Haddock, Calculus, Wolff and Snowy en route to the Moon... yet Miller seems to have an additional ace up his sleeve, involving Tintin's old enemy [[Recap/TintinKingOttokarsSceptre Colonel Jorgen]]...

* ExpoSpeak: The "acting the goat" scene is actually an InfoDump that explains the features of the moon rocket, but Calculus' rage makes it entertaining.

* [[BewareTheNiceOnes/ComicBooks Beware The Nice Ones]]: Calculus is generally very pleasant and friendly. But when Haddock insults his work, he goes berserk. Providing some of the most memorable moments of the issue.

* [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight The Cuckoolanders Were Right]] : It's easy to miss, but the Thom(p)sons display an unusual bout of competence in this story by successfully [[spoiler:capturing the Mole, who had managed to get the drop on Haddock]]. Of course, everybody, including them, thinks it's another of their stupid mistakes when they realise [[spoiler:the person they captured is Calculus' assistant]]. Also counts as a RewatchBonus because one realises this only after reading [[Recap/TintinExplorersOnTheMoon the sequel]] (where nobody comments on this).

* CassandraTruth: It's easy to miss, but the Thom(p)sons display an unusual bout of competence in this story by successfully [[spoiler:capturing the Mole, who had managed to get the drop on Haddock]]. Of course, everybody, including them, thinks it's another of their stupid mistakes when they realise [[spoiler:the person they captured is Calculus' assistant]]. Also counts as a RewatchBonus because one realises this only after reading [[Recap/TintinExplorersOnTheMoon the sequel]] (where nobody comments on this).

* {{Ruritania}}: Syldavia. Previously featured in ''[[Recap/TintinKingOttokarsSceptre King Ottokar's Sceptre]]'' (1939), Syldavia is an atypically detailed version of this trope. It has its own flag, royal dynasty, historical events and even a language created by Hergé. The made-up language, despite being written in Cyrillic script, was remarkably not Slavic but a dialect of Flemish/Dutch with some curious phonetics. In this issue, Syldavia becomes the setting for a fictionalized space program.

* SpoilerTitle: The album ends on a CliffHanger as the astronauts have passed out and Earth has lost communication with them. As mission control gets increasingly nervous, the {{Narrator}} asks the reader rhetorically (paraphrased): "Will Tintin and his friends survive this dangerous mission to make it to the moon? Find out in ''[[{{Recap/TintinExplorersOnTheMoon}} Explorers On The Moon]]''!" The title of the next album points out that they do make it to the Moon.

* {{Ruritania}}: Syldavia. Previously featured in ''[[Recap/TintinKingOttokarsSceptre King Ottokar's Sceptre]]'' (1939), Syldavia is an atypically detailed version of this trope. It has its own flag, royal dynasty, historical events and even a language created by Hergé. The made-up language, despite being written in Cyrillic script, was remarkably not Slavic but a dialect of Flemish/Dutch with some curious phonetics. In this album, Syldavia becomes the setting for a fictionalized space program.

* [[BewareTheNiceOnes/ComicBooks Beware The Nice Ones]]: Calculus is generally very pleasant and friendly. But when Haddock insults his work, he goes berserk. Providing some of the most memorable moments of the album.

* BerserkButton: Do not tell Professor Calculus he’s acting the goat.

* BerserkButton: Do not tell Professor Calculus he is acting the goat.

After returning to Marlinspike following a trip, Tintin and Haddock are surprised to find that Calculus had mysteriously left some time earlier. They immediately receive a telegram from the Professor explaining that he's in [[{{Ruritania}} Syldavia]] and asking them to join him there. They do so and are led to a heavily guarded scientific research compound, where they are greeted by Calculus' assistant engineer Frank Wolff and the Professor himself. The latter claims they are in Syldavia's Atomic Research Center, which recruited Calculus for their Astronautical section. Calculus is currently completing plans for a nuclear power rocket that will be able to land on the Moon...and he called Tintin and Haddock so that they will be part of the landing party. Despite both having some misgivings about the plan (especially Haddock) they accept.

** In relation to the previous point, no test flight seems to be performed before the moon trip, even although the rocket is a nuclear-powered single-stage-to-orbit spaceship, so the costs of taking off and landing are relatively low. From a scientific or military view of point, this means Tintin and company take off without having proved the rocket really has the capabilities to do it (as in not blowing up, not deviating and crashing, not failing at reaching orbit, not depressurizing, or not losing functionality in space conditions, for instance).
** The Syldavian government allows two civilians with no formal training in space flight and a ''dog'' to be "invited" to take part in the biggest and riskiest attempt at manned space flight ever devised. This wouldn't have been out of place had the story been set in Victorian times a la ''Literature/FromTheEarthToTheMoon'', when the ideal of the GentlemanAdventurer meant many expeditions were privately organized by bored rich men and thus it was usual to see unqualified people in perilous adventures only because they had connections. By the time this story is set in, however, this mentality had been completely phased out and replaced by a more professional approach similar to our modern NASA. Admittedly, Tintin and Haddock aren't that unqualified despite being civilians, as both have previous experience being part of a [[Recap/TintinTheShootingStar successful scientific expedition]], and the book makes it quite clear they weren't so much invited as much as they were recommended by Calculus for being competent and brave, but they are still people who have zero experience with engineering, piloting or using the technology involved in the travel.
** For that matter, Professor Calculus, a not-very-physically-fit older man with hearing problems, realistically would ''never'' be given the nod to actually go up to the moon, hearing aid or no hearing aid. This goes without mentioning that there is a good reason why real-life rocket scientists aren't also astronauts themselves after all: so they can ensure that, in the case of accidents happening and men dying, all the knowledge and brainpower that made the mission possible are not lost.
* BedsheetGhost: Haddock dresses up as one in order to scare Calculus out of his amnesia. He carries some chains to complete the routine. It's not very successful, until he mentions "acting the goat".

** Judging by the backstory or lack thereof, the moon rocket project seems to involve multiple scientific jumps in one within the series' universe: aside from a non-manned rocket used as a probe, it's not only the first moon trip attempt, but also the first manned space flight, the first usage of that spaceship model in particular, and the very first mission of that particular team. In real life, as scientific common sense mandates, conquest of the space was accomplished in steps, which would allow to readjust, rethink and redesign with every discovery. No sane military agency at the time the story is set would have tried to invent space travel and land in a faraway extra-terrestrial destination all in one, even if revolutionary advances like Calculus' atomic engine could have allowed it, as it would mean such a difficult trip was being done virtually in the dark. Tellingly, this is exactly what comes back to bite them in the next chapter, ''Recap/TintinExplorersOnTheMoon'', where many of the perils found by the team are based on the fact that they are the only spaceship in the world in its first travel and, were the ship or their mostly theoretical calculations fail them, they would be utterly doomed.

* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: Hard science fiction. The print medium enables Hergé to better display the colossal engineering needed to develop interplanetary spaceflight. Though [[ScienceMarchesOn science has marched on]] considerably since it was written, at the time it was practically a student's primer on both nuclear energy and spaceflight.

* ArtisticLicenseEngineering:

** Judging by the backstory or lack thereof, the moon rocket project seems to involve multiple scientific jumps within the series' universe: besides a non-manned rocket used as a probe, it's not only the first moon trip attempt, but also the first manned space flight, the first usage of that spaceship model, and the very first mission of that particular team. In real life, as scientific common sense mandates, conquest of the space was accomplished in steps, which would allow to readjust, rethink and redesign with every discovery. No sane military agency at the time the story is set would have tried to invent space travel and land in a faraway extra-terrestrial destination all in one, even if revolutionary advances like Calculus' atomic engine could have allowed it, as it would mean such a difficult trip was being done virtually in the dark. Tellingly, this is exactly what comes back to bite them in the next chapter, ''Recap/TintinExplorersOnTheMoon'', where many of the perils found by the team are based on the fact that they are the only spaceship in the world in its first travel and, were the ship or their calculations fail them, they would be utterly doomed.
** In relation to the previous point, no test flight seems to be performed before the moon trip, even although the rocket is nuclear-powered single-stage-to-orbit spaceship, so the costs of taking off and landing are relatively low. From a scientifical or military view of point, this means they took off without having proved the rocket had really the capabilities to do it (as in not blowing up, not deviating and crashing, not failing at reaching orbit, not depressurizing or not losing functionality in space conditions, for instance).
** The Syldavian government allows two civilians with no formal training in space flight and a ''dog'' to be "invited" to take part in the biggest and riskiest attempt at manned space flight ever devised. This wouldn't have been out of place had the story been set in Victorian times a la ''Literature/FromTheEarthToTheMoon'', when the ideal of the GentlemanAdventurer meant many expeditions were privately organized by bored rich men and thus it was usual to see unqualified people in perilous adventures only because they had connections. By the time this story is set in, however, this mentality had been completely phased out and replaced by a more professional approach similar to our modern NASA. Admittedly, Tintin and Haddock aren't that unqualified despite being civilians, as both have previous experience being part of a [[Recap/TintinTheShootingStar successful scientific expedition]], and the book makes it quite clear they weren't so much invited as much as they were recommended by Calculus for being competent and brave, but they are still people who have zero experience with piloting or using the technology involved in the travel.

** In relation to the previous point, the rocket is nuclear-powered single-stage-to-orbit spaceship, so the costs of taking off and landing are relatively low, yet no test flight seems to be performed before the moon trip. From a scientifical or military view of point, this means they took off without having proved the rocket had really the capabilities to do it.

Of course, preparing for this [[TechnologyMarchesOn unprecedented and utterly crazy]] venture is not simple or easy. To make matters worse, the preparation is plagued with incidents, ranging from the humorous (the Thompsons, who inexplicably were assigned as security engage in their traditional bungling) to significant (Calculus losing his memory, which puts the whole project in jeopardy though he ends up being cured by Haddock via [[HilarityEnsues ensued hilarity]]) to the serious (Miller, a mysterious spymaster working under an unnamed foreign power is interested in the project and almost succeeds in stealing the prototype rocket, only to be prevented by a SelfDestructMechanism installed at Tintin's suggestion). Despite all this, the rocket is completed and is successfully launched, with Tintin, Haddock, Calculus, Wolff and Snowy en route to the Moon...yet Miller seems to have an additional ace up his sleeve, involving Tintin's old enemy [[Recap/TintinKingOttokarsSceptre Colonel Jorgen]]...

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary:
** The Syldavian government allows two civilians with no formal training in space flight and a ''dog'' to be "invited" to take part in the biggest and riskiest attempt at manned space flight ever devised. This wouldn't have been out of place had the story been set in Victorian times a la ''Literature/FromTheEarthToTheMoon'', when the ideal of the GentlemanAdventurer meant many expeditions were privately organized by bored rich men and thus it was usual to see unqualified people in perilous adventures only because they had connections. By the time this story is set in, however, this mentality had been completely phased out and replaced by a more professional approach similar to our modern NASA. But then again, how else were you going to get Tintin and his friends on-board? [[note]]Admittedly, Tintin and Haddock aren't ''that'' unqualified despite being civilians; both have [[Recap/TintinTheShootingStar previous experience being part of a successful scientific expedition]], and the book makes it quite clear they weren't so much "invited" as much as they were recommended by Calculus for being competent and brave.[[/note]]
** For that matter, Professor Calculus, a not-very-physically-fit older man with hearing problems, realistically would ''never'' be given the nod to actually go up to the moon, hearing aid or no hearing aid. There's a reason real-life rocket scientists aren't also astronauts themselves, after all.

** The Syldavian government allows two civilians with no formal training in space flight and a ''dog'' to be "invited" to take part in the biggest and riskiest attempt at manned space flight ever devised. This wouldn't have been out of place had the story been set in the Victorian times a la ''Literature/FromTheEarthToTheMoon'', when the ideal of the GentlemanAdventurer meant many expeditions were privately organized by bored rich men and thus it was usual to see unqualified people in perilous adventures only because they had connections. By the time this story is set in, however, this mentality had been completely phased out and replaced by a more professional approach similar to our modern NASA. But then again, how else were you going to get Tintin and his friends on-board? [[note]]Admittedly, Tintin and Haddock aren't ''that'' unqualified despite being civilians; both have [[Recap/TintinTheShootingStar previous experience being part of a successful scientific expedition]], and the book makes it quite clear they weren't so much "invited" as much as they were recommended by Calculus for being competent and brave.[[/note]]

* DemBones: The Thom(p)sons actually think that a real animated skeleton is around, and put the cuffs on a normal, non-animated one who is hanging at a physician's office.

* ScienceMarchesOn: While the book portrays realistically the lack of InertialDampening during the take-off, the method chosen by the rocket designers to cushion its anatomical effects on the crew is to have them lay on their stomachs, which was considered an [[https://www.lostateminor.com/2013/02/18/prone-position-pilot-bed-from-1949-by-u-s-air-forces-air-laboratory/ actual method]] back in late 1940s. We now know that such a method is the ''last'' thing you want to do to prepare for take off, as you are allowing the acceleration to effectively squeeze your lungs flat between the floor and your own body. The outcome shown in the take-off is accurate: everybody being painfully smothered until passing out is pretty much what they would have got in real life.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: The Syldavian government allows two civilians with no formal training in space flight and a ''dog'' to be "invited" to take part in the biggest and riskiest attempt at manned space flight ever devised. This wouldn't have been out of place had the story been set in the Victorian times a la ''Literature/FromTheEarthToTheMoon'', when the ideal of the GentlemanAdventurer meant many expeditions were privately organized by bored rich men and thus it was usual to see unqualified people in perilous adventures only because they had connections. By the time this story is set in, however, this mentality had been completely phased out and replaced by a more professional approach similar to our modern NASA. But then again, how else were you going to get Tintin and his friends on-board? [[note]]Admittedly, Tintin and Haddock aren't ''that'' unqualified despite being civilians; both have [[Recap/TintinTheShootingStar previous experience being part of a successful scientific expedition]], and the book makes it quite clear they weren't so much "invited" as much as they were recommended by Calculus for being competent and brave.[[/note]]

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: The Syldavian government allows two civilians with no formal training in space flight and a ''dog'' to be "invited" to take part in the biggest and riskiest attempt at manned space flight ever devised. This wouldn't have been out of place had the story been set in the Victorian times a la ''Literature/FromTheEarthToTheMoon'', when the ideal of the GentlemanAdventurer meant many expeditions were privately organized by bored rich men and thus it was usual to see unqualified people in perilous adventures only because they had connections. By the time this story is set in, however, this mentality had been completely phased out and replaced by a more professional approach similar to our modern NASA. But then again, how else were you going to get Tintin and his friends on-board? [[note]]Admittedly, Tintin and Haddock aren't ''that'' unqualified despite being civilians; both have [[Recap/TintinTheShootingStar previous experience being part of a successful scientific expedition]], and the book makes it quite clear they weren't so much "invited" as much as they were recommanded by Calculus for being competent and brave.[[/note]]

* ContinuityNod: The Thom(p)sons are still suffering from eating Formula Fourteen pills in ''[[Recap/TintinLandOfBlackGold Land of Black Gold]]'', meaning they occasionally burp coloured bubbles and have their hair grow crazily.

* RetroRocket: The Moon-rocket, as seen [[http://www.torpedo-emscher.de/wr/union/rakete/img/tintin_rocket10_.jpg here]]. This is an interesting case as it's combined with a [[ShownTheirWork frighteningly prescient]] depiction of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar space program. Blueprints and launchpad shown [[http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3p.html#tintin here]]. The rocket's external appearance is based on the German V2.