Seperation 02-26-2015

[TazManiac]

That second panel reminded me of a pair of Candlesticks I made on the lathe in Woodshop. It took an outside observer to point out how phallic in profile they turned out to be..

[Sidhekin]

Regardless of the separation being intentional or no, I suspect the design required them to be INSIDE the capsule at this point

The original design, sure.

Nadette's design, now ...

See, this is what happens when you let shapeshifters do the planning.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Does that look to anyone else like Atsali's arms have probably broken from being yanked against those rungs?

no

[AnotherFairportfan]

Atsali's arms are very strong. Remember, she saved Kathryn by snatching her in mid fall in a previous arc, that would probably be 3 to 4 times her own weight in the pull-out. And she has grown since then.

Based on frame #1 it looks like they came off the rocket with a fair bit of altitude, so Atsali and company have plenty of time as they glide down to observe the decent of the (escape?) capsule. I expect that what is in it will be the Friday cliffhanger.

Has she taken off the talisman?

[sheik]

Atsali's arms are very strong. Remember, she saved Kathryn by snatching her in mid fall in a previous arc, that would probably be 3 to 4 times her own weight in the pull-out. And she has grown since then.

Based on frame #1 it looks like they came off the rocket with a fair bit of altitude, so Atsali and company have plenty of time as they glide down to observe the decent of the (escape?) capsule. I expect that what is in it will be the Friday cliffhanger.

Has she taken off the talisman?

If she hasn't it may already be broken.

[Warrl]

I'm pretty sure it is. It's too clean a kraack! to be unintended.

See the flare surrounding it? Metal fatigue doesn't cause flares. I'd say it's either the ignition of the second-stage engine, or more likely a carefully rigged explosion set off to decisively disengage the booster rocket.

I'd say you are probably right about the break toward the top of the rocket, if it weren't for one factor...

... the effectively-simultaneous break at the other end.

If you use the side-fin as a unit of measurement, you'll see that Atsali is much closer to it (about 1.5 or maybe 2 fin-lengths) in the last panel than in the second. A few other measurements, and basically the portion of the rocket that Atsali was trying to press against is *gone* in the last panel. Including at least the lower of the brackets she had her arms through. I suspect she's still holding the upper brackets in her hands... but they are no longer attached to the rocket. (So they'd probably not be important any more and she might drop them without further mention.)

[sheik]

Talk about timing.
The escape rocket is in the tube and shielded by solid rock from the initial radiation and out of the tube before the ground wave hits.
At this point all they have to worry about (besides hitting the ground at too high a velocity) is a rain of molten rock ejected from the crater.
Even that may not be a problem. The ejecta may be almost entirely rock vapor or particles so small as to be cooled and braked by the air.

[My2Cents]

Atsali's arms are very strong. Remember, she saved Kathryn by snatching her in mid fall in a previous arc, that would probably be 3 to 4 times her own weight in the pull-out. And she has grown since then.

Based on frame #1 it looks like they came off the rocket with a fair bit of altitude, so Atsali and company have plenty of time as they glide down to observe the decent of the (escape?) capsule. I expect that what is in it will be the Friday cliffhanger.

Has she taken off the talisman?

If she hasn't it may already be broken.

I can just see them falling with Atsali going "Aaaaagghh!" and Nadette yelling "Wings! WINGS! Take off the <deleted> talisman!"

Or possibly Nadette has the talisman in her teeth courtesy of frame #3.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Someone needs to fix the thread title.

[meisdadoo]

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It's funny though... when I saw the rocket breaking up I flashed back to Saturday afternoons as a kid watching old war movies with my dad (he loved them) I could almost hear Curt Jurgens from the enemy below when they took their sub to the bottom a thousand feet down (well below crush depth for WWII subs). Curt looks at his first officer and says: "Zey build zem good in Germany, eh, Heine?"

Of course, we already know everything used in the desert was built by Acme... maker of fine (if unstable) rocketry for over ten thousand years.

In the book "Black May", naval historian Michael Gannon states, that in the summer of 1943 a German Type-VIIC boat involuntarily dived to 340 metres (1115 feet) without breaking up.

So there's that. . .

[meisdadoo]

Don't worry dear friends, the talisman is long gone as evidenced by the last panel in http://wapsisquare.com/comic/get-out-of-the-way/

[jwhouk]

Her markings come out regardless of the talisman, as we've already seen back here

[lake_wrangler]

Don't worry dear friends, the talisman is long gone as evidenced by the last panel in http://wapsisquare.com/comic/get-out-of-the-way/

Her markings come out regardless of the talisman, as we've already seen back here

True, but then again, we have since seen that the talisman stopped working, most likely broken from Nadette "clocking her nose on the talisman"...

[Catawampus]

That actually looks like they are hanging on the outside of that projectile. If they are how in the heck did Sali's arms manage to stay attached to her body against the G forces launching it?

The force on her arms would be due to the acceleration of the rocket. Since it is a rocket and not a ballistic projectile, it doesn't need to have all of its acceleration done in one big burst right at the very start. If you're willing to pay the cost in time and efficiency and fuel, there's no theoretical reason why you couldn't have a rocket take off at an acceleration of, say, one foot per hour all the way to the moon so that the people on board don't even notice the movement. So the rocket might not be putting too much strain on the gals at this particular moment. If they were to keep holding on to it as it continued to rise, and if it keep on accelerating, then Atsali might end up finding herself disarmed.

The matter of the exhaust fumes would be of more burning urgency. . .

At least Nadette has a couple of airbags to soften the impending impact.

Atsali has already expressed quite emphatically that they aren't made for that function, though. Even though she seems to be fine with using Katherine's that way; perhaps siren ones aren't, while human ones are?

Atsali's arms are very strong. Remember, she saved Kathryn by snatching her in mid fall in a previous arc, that would probably be 3 to 4 times her own weight in the pull-out. And she has grown since then.

Though that was using her drumsti-. . .her legs, not her arms. Legs tend to be a bit sturdier than are arms.

And even when in human form she is way more durable than human, given how she takes (almost) no damage from this fall. So even though the acceleration or the wind shear would have likely killed a normal human, it's not that surprising that Atsali is more resilient.

It makes sense that she'd be rather tough physically. She's a member of a species that is more massive than any bird, yet still has to go through the process of learning how to fly. Any individuals who are too soft and squishy wouldn't survive beyond the first few less-than-perfectly-controlled landings.

And why were these people building rockets, anyway?

Given their apparent propensity to casually tinker with earth-shattering technologies, my guess: to mix their martinis in a novel fashion.

[Sidhekin]

The matter of the exhaust fumes would be of more burning urgency. . .

Oh yes. Not when airborne, as the fumes escape freely behind them, but from ignition through lift-off, and a second or so more ...

But we don't really know what tech they used. The initial second or so may have been without fumes, for all we know. Railgun first stage?

[Catawampus]

The matter of the exhaust fumes would be of more burning urgency. . .

Oh yes. Not when airborne, as the fumes escape freely behind them, but from ignition through lift-off, and a second or so more ...

Especially since it seems to be a silo-staged launch. Sure, it might have exhaust tunnels leading out, but you're still going to get a good bit coming up the sides of the rocket unless you have a really carefully-designed launch structure.

But we don't really know what tech they used. The initial second or so may have been without fumes, for all we know. Railgun first stage?

Perhaps something similar to man-portable rocket weapons, where a small and less-messy initial engine gets the rocket a distance away from the launcher, and then the main engine ignites and gives the rocket its first serious boost. Which might also be why the kids were able to cling to the outside without ending up being able to tie their own shoelaces without bending over.

[scantrontb]

Perhaps something similar to man-portable rocket weapons, where a small and less-messy initial engine gets the rocket a distance away from the launcher, and then the main engine ignites and gives the rocket its first serious boost. Which might also be why the kids were able to cling to the outside without ending up being able to tie their own shoelaces without bending over.

but if that were the case, then they would still have been vaporized because they were NOT in the rocket when it DID kick in with the serious acceleration, they would have been going too slow and too close to the detonation to have escaped it. the proposed main engine (versus what we've seen already) would have been the REAL force providing the needed speed and distance to safely survive.