December 17, 2014
#1461: Payloads explain
[This comic is a wide drawing, with a larger drawing that can be reached by clicking the small picture on xkcd. In the smaller picture shown on xkcd only the text that is not red can be read. The transcript below is thus for the large drawing. It is divided into three horizontal sections. The first section is black and shows spacecrafts, the second is white and shows launch vehicles, and the third is black again showing a timeline ranging from 1950 to the future. The vehicles are shown by the proper number of horses, and when that weight is less than one full horse also in the weight of other smaller animals.]
[The black section:]
Spacecraft mass
Measured in horses
Sputnik – <1 horse (2 dogs )
Vanguard 1 – <1 horse (Squirrel )
Pioneer 5 – <1 horse (Large dog)
Mariner 2 (United States) – <1 horse (3 dogs )
Venera 1 (USSR) – 1 horse
Apollo – 67 horses
Venera 7 – 3 horses
Pioneer 10 – <1 horse (7 dogs)
Skylab – 171 horses
Venera 9 – 11 horses
Voyager 2 – 2 horses
Shuttle (Total) – 206 horses
Shuttle Payload – 54 horses
Mir – 288 horses
T-Rex – 15 horses
Hubble – 25 horses
Compton Gamma Ray Observatory – 38 horses
Keyhole 3 – Spy satellite
International Space Station – 932 horses
Cassini – 11 horses
Huygens lander – 1 horse
Rosetta – 6 horses
Opportunity – <1 horse (5 dogs)
Dawn – 3 horses
Terrastar – 15 horses
Dragon – 17 horses
Tiangong-1 – 19 horses
Curiosity – 2 horses
Keyhole 7 – 40 horses
Orion (capsule) – 20 horses
James Webb Telescope – 14 horses
[20 horses:]
Orion
[25 horses:]
Orion Service Module
[65 horses:]
Orion Deep-Space Habitat
[The white section:]
Launch vehicle capacity
(Payloads to low earth orbit)
Measured in horses
Sputnik Launcher – 1 horse
Thor – <1 horse (3 dogs)
Mercury-Atlas – 3 horses
Saturn I – 20 horses
Proton-K – 44 horses
Atlas-Centaur – 8 centaurs
Titan IIIA – 7 horses
Saturn IB – 45 horses
Soyuz – 14 horses
Saturn V – 262 horses
Black Arrow – <1 horse (4 dogs)
N1 – 211 horse – Exploded on Launch pad
Long March 1 – 2 horses
N-I (Japan) – 4 horses
Delta 0900 – 3 horses
Ariane 1 – 3 horses
SLV (India) – <1 horse (1 dog)
N-II – 4 horses
1981 Oldsmobile – 4 horses
ASLV – <1 horse (4 dogs)
Long March 4A – 9 horses
Ariane 4 – 16 horses
Shavit (Israel) – <1 horse (6 dogs)
Energia – 218 horses
Pegasus – 1 Pegasus
Atlas I – 13 horses
PSLV – 8 horses
J-I – 2 horses
Long March 3B – 27 horses
H-IIA – 22 horses
Delta IV-H – 64 horses
Falcon 1 – 1 horse
Ariane 5ES – 47 horses
H-IIB – 37 horses
Unha (North Korea) – <1 horse (2 dogs)
Atlas V 541 – 38 horses
Falcon 9 – 29 horses
Antares – 14 horses
Stratolaunch – 14 horses
Falcon Heavy – 118 horses
SLS Block 1 – 156 horses
SLS Block 1B – 217 horses
SLS Block 2 – 289 horses
[The timeline:]
1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, Future
A larger transcript with image descriptions can be found here: [[1461: Payloads/Transcript|Full transcript]]