Explorers on the Moon, published in 1954, is the seventeenth of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. Its original French title is On a marché sur la Lune ("We walked on the Moon"). It is the second of a two-part adventure begun in Destination Moon.

Storyline

The story continues from Destination Moon. Professor Calculus is taking Tintin, Tintin's dog Snowy, Captain Haddock and his assistant Frank Wolff to the Moon in his rocket. However, the detectives Thomson and Thompson come up from the hold, having mistaken the time of the launch (1:34 a.m. on Tuesday, 3 June 1952). Calculus is concerned at the effect this will have on their air supplies; Haddock is furious, and lambasts the detectives for being too imbecilic to understand the difference between 1:34 a.m. and 1:34 p.m.

The journey to the Moon is not uneventful — Haddock has smuggled some whisky aboard in hollowed-out books, becomes drunk, and engages in an unscheduled spacewalk that results in him briefly becoming a satellite of the asteroid Adonis. Tintin also dons a space suit to fetch him, and, in a very rare display of temper, lashes out at the Captain, declaring that the latter's recklessness has "nearly cost us our lives." When the rocket engine must temporarily be shut down in order to execute the turnaround maneuver that will enable it to land on the moon right side up, the momentary lack of artificial gravity also poses problems for Haddock, who has neglected to put on his magnetic-soled boots in time.

Additionally, Thomson and Thompson suffer a relapse of the condition caused by their ingestion of the energy-multiplying substance Formula Fourteen (see Land of Black Gold). As a result, they sprout thick hair that grows at lightning speed and frequently changes color. The Captain, having no other immediate duty, volunteers to cut their hair, but can scarcely keep up with it, and begins to suffer blisters from the scissors. He remarks sarcastically that in the future, when people ask him what he did on the rocket, he will reply, "Me? I was the hairdresser!" Gradually, however, the detectives' condition abates, and their appearances begin to return to normal...

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