「犬とじじいとアレクサンダー」 (Inu to Jijii to Arekusandā)
“Dog, Old Man, and Alexander”

The time has finally arrived. Uchuu Kyoudai has quite the penchant for drawing out the small happenings between the big events, something it’s been doing quite obviously for the past couple of episodes. I had worried that the launch would be put off for yet another episode in favour of searching for Apo and truth be told, in a sense it was. While we may have finally witnessed the very beginning of the launch towards the end of the episode, the rest won’t be coming around until next week. There are times when I feel the show could benefit a little from slightly increased pacing – this doesn’t happen often, but the lead up to the launch is one of those rare times.

Uchuu Kyoudai still has some very effective moments, even if they have been somewhat diluted recently. The tension during the two minutes before launch was palpable, and the launch itself was a wonderful thing to watch with the ecstatic crowd contrasting the silent awe of the candidates. I can only imagine what might be going through their heads at that moment; this is what they’re aiming for – one day soon, it could be them buckled down inside that rocket. Another of these moments comes from the long-awaited appearance of the sun, and not just in a literal sense – Mutta finally comes to terms with those vestiges of jealousy. It’s been twenty years since Hibito declared he’d go to the moon and that day is finally approaching. There’s no real need for envy – Mutta will likely follow soon after and the dream originated with Hibito.

During his frantic search for Apo, Mutta comes across a rather confused old man claiming to be a NASA employee. It’s largely thanks to this Deneil Young (Ishida Tarou) that Mutta finally manages to gather his thoughts without any distractions. Out near to alone on the old blockhouse dating from a time before the Apollo program, there was little else to provide any sort of distraction, Apo least of all. I imagine the history of the place would also have inspired Mutta in his ultimate decision to let go of any negative feelings towards this launch. It provides the perfect view too!

tl;dr: @MoombaDS – Continuing in its recent slow trend, #SpaceBros spends most of the episode slightly distanced from the launch.

Random thoughts:

  • As always, it’s great to see how much detail the author managed to include in regards to the whole launch process.
  • I see Mutta has continued to screw with Lowry!
  • Crocodiles!
  • I most certainly wouldn’t want to go anywhere in a van with Deneil Young. His driving was terrifying!
  • Even amidst the tension, Mutta’s parents still manage to bring a little comic relief.

Full-length images: 28, 31, 33.

 

Preview

Omake

19 Comments

    1. Some Question to our Space Flight Pros here…

      Lately i saw this Very High Jump of Baumgartner (this 39KM Jump Parachute). Is it not “cheaper” to build a Liftoff Platform that are carried with this kind of “balloons” to this highs (around 34-39 KM) and on this high, run the Rocket Engines to Space. You need lesser Fuel to get into Space..

      But it seems impossible, because of the Weight of Rocket + Liftoff Platform + Recover Equip and other Equip you need to successfully launch a Rocket into Space from this Hight

      Some sort of “Balloon Lift” into 39KM

      Germanguy
      1. You can recover the Gas from the Balloons to the Tanks again, for “recycling”. Its better then every time “lost” these Balloons, like in the Jump. They “cut” the Tie and lost the Balloon

        Germanguy
      2. Can you imagine the number of balloons and the weight of the platform needed to lift the rocket to and altitude of 39km? The price you have to pay for the helium and the frame?

        Not to mention that the airborne platform needs to be stable when the rocket’s engine ignites, so that there won’t be any problems like excessive vibrations/resonance (assuming the platform is built to survive the liftoff, too) and wrong angle of ascent (if the platform “dips” due to the rocket’s sudden engine activation).

        There is something called Stratolaunch, by the guys who built SpaceShipOne, but ATM it is nothing more than a paper project, though, yes, it’s actually possible to launch a missile from an aircraft – the US Air Force did study something called the Mobile Minuteman, which involved jettisoning an LGM-30 Minuteman intercontinental missile from the back of a C5 Galaxy cargo plane, have it deploy a parachute to slow its descent and stabilize its trajectory, then fire up its engine in midair and let it thunder away towards its designated target.

        R3
      3. That wouldn’t help. It’s not the altitude that is the problem, it’s just speed. Reaching orbital velocity takes a lot of energy. Just raising the height of the launch platform would only give you marginal fuel savings. That’s the reason why all our launch platforms are near the equator, that’s where Earth is spinning at its fastest fastest so you get a slight boost from that.

        Ayle
  1. Because the amount of fuel you save reducing the altitude you have to rocket through is negligible compared to the amount of fuel you need to accelerate to orbital velocity plus the additional altitude.

    e.g. Orbital velocity at 250km is about 7 km/s. The satellite has a potential energy of about 2.5 million joules/kg (mgh) and a kinetic energy of 25 million joules/kg (1/2mv2) (This ignores fuel burn and is just the energy that has to be imparted to the orbital vehicle). You’d save half a million joules/kg by ballooning to 50km…not enough for all the additional system requirements and points of failure.

    MartinDH
  2. Oh, Guys. Perhaps you see that too. But with this “lauch”, we have reached the “Future” of our Time-line. Because these kind of “Space Ship” is not even Build for NASA. And it only Exist as Blueprints. So, please be from now on careful HOW you tell you Story, dear Producers. Dont go to much in SiFi. But a 2nd “2001” with HAL9000 is not “fresh” either. 🙂

    And… Why is this called Mars 1? Is it not a Moon landing Unit? For Mars Traveling you need a “Lifeboat” out there. Because of the Traveling Distance

    Mouretsu Space Pirates, was SiFi and i Love it (Hope there will be a 2nd Season). But i think Uchuu Kyoudai should be in our “Universe”. Things that we “could” build with our own Effort (if we had Time&Money&Manpower)

    🙂

    Germanguy
    1. …some hints? Is Jaxa not into these “Super Sonic Flight” Air Crafts involved? I think to remember that they “shoot” some Prototype of these new Engine Type… Perhaps they build these in their “Present” like we have Today A380 and so on…

      Remember, the NASA Pilots was Air Craft Prototype Testers in the Beginning. Perhaps you can use these background too…

      Germanguy
    2. “And… Why is this called Mars 1? Is it not a Moon landing Unit?”

      Uchuu Kyoudai Mars rockets s based on real-life Ares rockets (planned as part of the Constellation program), with Mars being the Roman counterpart of Greek Ares – hence name. Why such blatant name change? I don’t know, but I suspect some copyright or trademark legal issues.

      puppygod
      1. Problem is, the Constellation Program (of which the Ares rockets were part of) was trashcanned by Obama in favor so that commercial alternatives such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and whatnot could step in. Right now the replacement for Ares is the Space Launch System, which is basically an overhauled fusion of the Ares IV and Ares V concepts.

        So either way, the manga depicts a rocket that’ll never exist in real-life (save for the Ares I-X, which made a single test flight before Constellation kicked the bucket).

        R3
  3. And then…ALIENS!

    Spoiler: Series ends with an invasion that wipes out all of humanity, and our two protagonists view in horror at what their curiosity and ambition have brought upon their kind.

    Da5id

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