Page 359
Hey look! An extra update! I spent two months not posting pages because I was stuck on one scene, but I never stopped drawing. I’m about to be swimming in pages now that I’ve caught up, and so why not post twice a week for a while to celebrate?
I love this new palette. And yet already it’s time to put it away and switch to the next one.
I think Ibrahim is mining dry ice in this scene. I’m not sure whether he’s after the dry ice itself (although the carbon it contains is an important resource), or something embedded in the ice. Either way, building an economy without money doesn’t mean no one has to work in the mines. You might have to if you want a spaceship. Notice he doesn’t have a helmet as part of his protective gear. I’m not sure you need one when no fall (or falling object) is going to be coming at you fast enough to hurt.
Based on a comment from a reader last page, I’ve reworded the text somewhat at the end. If solar sails aren’t enough to get you moving towards the sun on their own, they’re going to have to use their engines as well. I’m not going to attempt to figure out the physics of whatever complicated maneuvering they’re planning here. But I am confident they should be able to use their sails for the second half of the trip, when they’re slowing down to match the orbit of Earth. Thirteen months sounds like a long time, but it’s much faster than anything we can do with current technology (small nuclear engines and lots of gravity assist slingshots). It took New Horizons nine years to get to Pluto.
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