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From: Peter Fairbrother <peter@tsto.co.uk>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.strips,rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: xkcd: Sun Avoidance
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2024 01:31:27 +0000
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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On 27/12/2024 06:53, Your Name wrote:
> On 2024-12-27 06:03:24 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:
>> On 12/26/2024 3:57 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
>>> In article <vkkf06$34sri$1@dont-email.me>,
>>> Lynn McGuire  <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> xkcd: Sun Avoidance
>>>> https://www.xkcd.com/3029/
>>>>
>>>> “The comic shows the end of a table of human missions, both terrestrial
>>>> and space-based, ranked by how far they stayed away from the Sun.”
>>>>
>>>> “This comic was posted the day after December 24, 2024, when the Parker
>>>> Solar Probe made its closest approach to the Sun. As a result, it has
>>>> set a new record for the worst failure in solar avoidance. This mission
>>>> needs to be really close to the Sun so it can make close-up analysis of
>>>> its corona and magnetic field. It has been engineered with special 
>>>> solar
>>>> shields to protect it from the extreme heat and radiation.”
>>>>
>>>> Explained at:
>>>> https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3029:_Sun_Avoidance
>>>>
>>>> Lynn
>>>
>>> "North," murmured the captain. "North."
>>
>> What book is that ?  Please it is not a book about a whale.
>>
>> Lynn
> 
> Mr Google says it is Ray Bradbury's "The Golden Apples of the Sun", 
> which is an anthology of 22 short stories, so I don't know which story 
> it is from.
> 

The story is "The Golden Apples of the Sun".

"North" is just away from the Sun. They have plucked the apple and can 
now go home...

.... unlike the Parker Solar Probe, which will if all goes as planned get 
close at least twice more, before finally getting close again and 
exposing its instruments without shielding, which will destroy them. The 
solar shield will then continue orbiting for a few million years.

I kinda feel sorry for it, but I am anthropomorphising too much. However 
for some perhaps not-too-distant future AI controlled probes..

Peter Fairbrother