On the importance of adequate planning
Now there was a mission planned, on an asteroid to land,
thence to mine it of its minerals for gain.
And this mission would be manned by a brave and fearless band,
who’d be used to inhospitable terrain.
In a desert lies a town. All the folk live underground,
as its far too hot to be out in the day.
For two hundred miles around not another soul is found
and the food supplies are brought from far away.
And the reason why they’re there in the arid dessert air,
is to mine the opals scattered in the sand.
Oh they ration with great care not a drop of water spare,
in that dry and empty unforgiving land.
For this reason they were chosen to embark unto the frozen,
vast and unmapped lonely gulfs of outer space.
As they left this planet’s ozone to the asteroid belt supposin’,
they thought of the faces left at their old place.
They were sent to build a mine for those rare earth metals fine.
Suited perfect for this project goes the tale.
Now this mission had been planned down to every pin in hand.
There was no way that this mining quest could fail.
But though they rationed water fine, they were liberal with their wine,
and it turned out there was none in the supplies.
So they turned the ship around and returned to solid ground.
And you couldn’t get them back up to the skies.
Athos Athanasiou
A space poem a day – World Space Week day 1
A space poem a day – World Space Week day 2