I tweaked the window joke on this one to be more scientifically accurate, since I forgot conduction/convection are virtually non-existent in space, so even though the temperature may be minus 270 C outside, the internal temperature and airflow within the room itself would probably mitigate any significant heat loss. A vacuum is the most surefire method to stop heat transference, and this is *literally* how double-pane windows work.

Not that window condensation isn’t something we can fix with modern technology (your car can do it now) but it’s safe to assume the builders of the RPST Enterprise are incompetent, and Riker is damn lucky he didn’t get a room on the side of the ship that faces *towards* the sun.

At minimum, all windows onboard interstellar star ships should have protective metal shutters that slide in place when the window isn’t being actively used, or whenever eternal sensors detect dangerous levels of radiation. I’d hate to be some poor schmoe working in Ten Forward when the Captain decides he wants a closer look at that solar corona.

Author’s note: I’ve been sitting on this strip for several days, because it’s in somewhat poor taste to joke about mass casualties in the wake of so many mass casualties.

Unfortunately, give the racist troll currently squatting in the White House who gets a tiny little tangerine-colored chubby every time he fans the flames of hatred before professing to be the “least racist person on the planet,” I’ve lost track of the last time that we DIDN’T have a mass shooting or other shamefully preventable national tragedy casting a shadow over the country I live in.

At any rate, I apologize for posting such a bleak and depressing strip, though it is based on real data collected from the NASA Twin Study of astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly. Well worth checking out if you’re interested in the long-term effects of life outside of Earth. The good news is, that while extended space flight does have a detrimental effect on the human body, most of the ill effects Scott experienced during his one-year stay on the ISS, normalized fairly soon after he returned to Earth. A not-so-gentle reminder, that while it’s important to reach for the stars, the human race has one, and only one, home.

P.S. – I promise the next one will be sillier.

Remember kids: Say no to nitrogen narcosis.