Hard Work for a Soft Landing

[Stephen Whiteside]

Hard Work for a Soft Landing

I think it's such a clever thing
To build a little box and fling
Way out deep in outer space,
Then land it on a tiny place;
Place it on a comet's soil.
Imagine all the thought and toil
To pull a fancy trick like that.
It sure beats rabbits in a hat.
I know it didn't go quite right.
It's in a spot with little light.
Its batteries may not re-charge.
Yet, if you take it by and large,
You'd surely count it a success,
A triumph for us humans, yes?
So, who dreamed up this crazy scheme?
It seems more fitting for a dream.
We stand and gaze into the sky,
And watch a comet racing by.
To visit one, and then to land?
You wouldn't think it could be planned!
Of course, it was a handsome boon
To place a man upon the moon
(In fact, to place not one, but two).
I think that's really great, don't you?
But, as we bend our planet's bars,
I thought, to put a man on Mars
Would be a logical next step,
But folk with far more zip and pep
Than me had very different thoughts.
Aren't they clever? What good sorts!
In all the universe, so vast,
A tiny comet, moving fast,
Seems a target quite surreal.
They attacked it, though, with zeal.
In spite of this, they didn't dash,
And let their little baby crash
Upon its unforgiving plain.
They used the power of the brain
To make the landing soft and slow
To minimise the sudden blow
The lander would experience.
(Just thinking of it makes me tense.)
I know it didn't quite work out
The way they all had dreamed about.
The lander's harpoon didn't pin
It to the surface. This, a win,
For chaos and for entropy,
Yet still, I think we can agree,
The scientists have done so well,
They each deserve a good long spell
Beside the beach, or in the snow,
Or any place that boffins go
To have a well earned holiday,
And they deserve it on full pay.
So, if I ever wore a hat,
I'd take it off for blokes like that
And, yes, I know, for sheilas, too,
Who dream a dream, then see it through;
Who find a goal, then make a plan,
To the eternal joy of Man.
What, I ask you, could be better
Than small Philae, and Rosetta?

© Stephen Whiteside 17.11.2014

[Heather]

I thought it was pretty amazing Stephen. Ten years to get there, billions of miles travelled in space and using the gravity of the planets to sling it onto the comet. I have to admire the cleverness.

Heather

[Stephen Whiteside]

Thanks, Heather. But it is bush poetry? I guess not.

[Stephen Whiteside]

(It does have blokes and sheilas in it, though…)

[r.magnay]

'course it's bush poetry Stephen, you can see more of the stars and things from the bush than you can from the city so how much more bush than that do you want?

[Stephen Whiteside]

I'll take that, Ross. Not sure anybody else will, though...

[Heather]

It's poetry Stephen and I don't care much for labels. ....

[Stephen Whiteside]

Thanks, Heather. Astropoetry, perhaps. Whoops! Another label...

[Heather]

A rose by any other name........

[Bob Pacey]

You only had to see the joy on their faces to realise just how hard it was to achieve the result that they got. I reckon that's why I love Big Bang Theory Geeks fascinate me.


Bob