The designer therefore entered into correspondence with Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans, the author of Man among the stars and documenta. In 1948, in collaboration with Dr. Tintin's editor Jacques van Melkebeke, offers a scenario Hergé. But the story is more like a pastiche rather than a true adventure of Tintin. Hergé took this work a few elements: when the characters float in weightlessness, the scene where Haddock gets angry with his whiskey that goes into a ball and the scene where Captain, drunk, leaving the rocket. Hergé, however, continued his collaboration with Heuvelmans for technical elements. Thus, a model of the rocket was made in every detail.
However, it was the story to be realistic, but it does not sink in the documentary filled with bubbles of technical data. Hergé had a great idea to prevent this, one to include a humorous dimension in technical explanations scenes. So when Wolff explains Sunflower or more or less complex elements, Haddock is here to make you smile with its replicas. This own style Hergé, allows to give a lightness to the scenes.
In this comic besides the return of Colonel Jorgen (King Ottokar's Sceptre) there is the appearance of Wolff, a paradoxical character. His end will introduce a tragic note to the album. Wolff is not a bad guy like the others in the series. He went into a spiral because of his love of the game that has multiplied its debts. Not having choice and being constantly tortured, he was forced to betray his colleagues and delivering secret information to an unknown power.
The farewell letter that Wollf leaves before abandoning the rocket Hergé has always left unsatisfied. Indeed, under pressure, Hergé added the message "As for me, maybe a miracle will he survive in me too." Everyone is aware that the engineer was sentenced to die. Although Hergé always explained that it was a sacrifice and not a suicide, he was forced to revise the message to cut short the accusations of right-thinking people. But the engineer had no other way out. This is the limit of this trip to the moon. Contrary to what one might think, Hergé was very limited in the course of history. The trip to the moon is a subject emptied even declared the author. With the next adventure, The Calculus Affair, limits again become less important.
