moonshot
Explanation
The Joke
A wealthy-looking man offers to pay 200 million dollars to send someone around the Moon and back. The other person points out a catch: since they will be on the far side of the Moon, they will be unable to send or receive signals from Earth -- they will be completely out of communication. The wealthy man acknowledges this but says it is too bad, because he would really like to do it anyway.
In the "Later" panels, we see the spacecraft rounding the far side of the Moon, and from inside the capsule, the passenger shouts: "I liked the Star Wars prequels!" The entire elaborate, expensive trip was motivated not by scientific curiosity or adventure, but by the desire to express an extremely unpopular opinion in a place where absolutely nobody could hear it. The far side of the Moon is the ultimate safe space for sharing a shameful take.
The Humor
The joke plays on the idea that some opinions are so socially unacceptable that you would need to travel to the far side of the Moon -- the most isolated spot reachable by humans -- just to say them aloud. Liking the Star Wars prequels (Episodes I-III) has been a famously controversial opinion in nerd culture, with the films widely criticized for poor dialogue, overuse of CGI, and various creative decisions. The absurd disproportion between the effort and expense (200 million dollars, a trip around the Moon) and the trivial nature of the secret opinion is the core of the comedy. The comic also parodies the emerging trend of billionaire-funded space tourism, suggesting that the real value of private space travel might just be getting far enough away from the internet to express a bad take.
References
The comic references the phenomenon of the "radio shadow" on the far side of the Moon, where direct communication with Earth is impossible due to the Moon blocking radio signals. This was a real concern during the Apollo missions. It also references the cultural backlash against the Star Wars prequel trilogy (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith), directed by George Lucas and released between 1999 and 2005. The premise of paying for a trip around the Moon also evokes real-world proposals like SpaceX's Dear Moon project.