Background Hergé first devised the idea of sending Tintin on a mission to the Moon while he was working on
Prisoners of the Sun (1949). His decision to move into the field of
science fiction might have been influenced by his friendly rivalry with his colleague
Edgar P. Jacobs, who had recently had success with his own science fiction comic,
The Secret of the Swordfish (1950–1953). He decided that it would be a two-volume story arc, as had proved successful with his earlier arcs,
The Secret of the Unicorn (1943) and ''
Red Rackham's Treasure (1944), and The Seven Crystal Balls (1948) and Prisoners of the Sun
. He had initially intended on beginning this story after the culmination of Prisoners of the Sun
, but both his wife Germaine Remi and his close friend Marcel Dehaye convinced him to proceed with Land of Black Gold'' (1950), a story that he had previously left unfinished, instead. V-2 rocket being launched in 1945. The V-2 would serve as a major inspiration for Hergé in his work on both
Destination Moon and
Explorers on the Moon. Seeking advice on the story, Hergé consulted his friend
Bernard Heuvelmans, who had authored the non-fiction book ''L'Homme parmi les étoiles'' ("Man Among the Stars") (1944). In autumn 1947, Heuvelmans and
Jacques Van Melkebeke developed a script for the story, which they gave to Hergé. This version based Calculus' lunar expedition in a fictional location, Radio City, in the United States. It featured a return of Professor Decimus Phostle, a character who had previously appeared in
The Shooting Star (1942), but this time as an antagonist; Phostle had sold the secrets of the mission in order to attain funds to buy a diamond for the actress
Rita Hayworth. In early 1948, Hergé produced two black-and-white pages of this version of the story before abandoning it. Hergé retained some elements of this original script in his finished version, namely the scenes in which Haddock drinks whiskey in a gravity-free environment and that in which Haddock goes for a space walk and nearly becomes a satellite of Adonis, which appear on pages 5 and 8 of
Explorers on the Moon. Nevertheless, Heuvelmans thought his influence on the story to be more significant, stating that "in going through the two books we [he and Van Melkebeke] really had the impression that it was what we had originally done at the beginning. In broad outline, that was it". Hergé hoped for the story to be as realistic as possible, and sought to eschew fantastical elements. In his own words, it contained "no moonmen, no monsters, no incredible surprises". To ensure this realism, he collected a wide range of documents about
rockets and space travel with which to conduct research. In this he was aided by Heuvelmans, who collected pictures of rockets and atomic research facilities for him. Hergé's research archive included
an article from the American magazine ''
Collier's which discussed how humanity could reach the Moon, as well as books by Pierre Rousseau and Auguste Piccard. A further work that he used was L'Astronautique'' (1950), a book on putative space travel by the physicist
Alexander Ananoff, with whom Hergé began a correspondence in April 1950. He also visited the
Ateliers de Constructions Electriques de Charleroi's Center for Atomic Research, striking up a subsequent correspondence with its director,
Max Hoyaux. Hergé incorporated much of this technical information into the story, but juxtaposed it with moments of humour to make it more accessible to his young readership. According to literary critics
Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier, possible fictional influences on Hergé's story include
Jules Verne's 1870 novel
Around the Moon and the 1950 American film
Destination Moon. Hergé was certainly inspired by a number of photographic stills from the
Destination Moon film which had been published. The computer system at the Sprodj space centre was visually based upon the
UNIVAC I, the first computer to be created for non-military purposes. Hergé based his Moon rocket on the designs of the
V-2 rocket which had been developed by German scientists during
World War II. The red-and-white checker pattern on Hergé's rocket was based upon an illustration of a V-2 which Hergé had come upon in
Leslie Simon's 1947 book
German Research in World War II. He commissioned the construction of a model rocket with detachable parts from his assistant Arthur Van Noeyen. He took the model to
Paris where he showed it to Ananoff, asking him if it was realistic representation of what a Moon rocket might look like. He and his assistants then used the model from which to accurately sketch when producing the comic. Hergé also inserted a cameo of Jacobs into the story, using him as the basis for a scientist that appears on page 40 of
Destination Moon, a nod to Jacobs' inclusion of a reference to Hergé in one of his
Blake and Mortimer mysteries,
The Mystery of the Great Pyramid (1954).
Publication Hergé announced the upcoming story with two consecutive covers of
Tintin magazine each depicting the Moon. The story began serialisation in the Belgian
Tintin magazine from 30 March 1950, in the French language. It then began serialisation over the border in France, in that country's edition of the magazine, from 11 May 1950. During this time, there were changes to how Hergé conducted his work; on 6 April 1950, he established
Studios Hergé as a
public company. The Studios were based in his Avenue Delleur house in
Brussels, with Hergé making a newly purchased country house in
Céroux-Mousty his and Germaine's main abode. The Studios would provide both personal support to Hergé and technical support for his ongoing work. He hired
Bob de Moor as his primary apprentice at the Studios in March 1951. On 7 September 1950, only six months after the start of serialisation, the story was interrupted due to the fact Hergé was suffering another breakdown and had been developing
eczema on his hands. On 9 April 1952, the story was continued in
Tintin. The story was collected together and published by
Editions Casterman as
Objectif Lune in 1953. The title had been Hergé's own choice, having rejected Casterman's suggestion of
Tintin and the Nuclear Rocket. For publication in book form, the story was re-coloured, with various changes being made; for instance, in the serialised version, the uniforms worn by staff were green, and they are changed to blue for the book volume. A number of scenes were also deleted, including Snowy about to be thrown out into outer space accidentally by Haddock, the Thompsons getting lost on their moonwalk. Hergé sent a copy to Ananoff, with a message stating that "your help, your knowledge, has been invaluable, enabling me to get my little characters to the Moon... and to bring them back safe and sound". An English-language translation of the book was published in 1959. Marking the
Apollo 11 Moon landings in 1969, Hergé produced an illustration in which
NASA astronaut
Neil Armstrong has just arrived on the Moon, only to be greeted by Tintin, Snowy, Haddock, and Calculus carrying roses and a sign welcoming him. That same year, the French magazine
Paris Match commissioned him to produce a short comic documenting the Apollo 12 landings. ==Critical analysis==