A chance to go to space!
Even better: a chance to go to space without leaving your computer.
No, not on Richard Branson’s £200,000 ticket to the atmosphere with your laptop as carry-on luggage, but through a request from NASA (via Sky News):
Nasa Wants Three-Line Poems For Mars Mission
The space agency is inviting the public to send in poems to go on a DVD that will be carried on a new Mars mission.
Nasa is inviting the public to send in their name and a poem to be put on a DVD that will be carried aboard a Martian-bound spacecraft.
The disc will be in the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, scheduled to launch in November.
Every name submitted will go on the disc but the space agency also wants people to write a short haiku poem.
A haiku is a form of writing that originated in Japan and is usually made up of three lines and around 17 syllables.
The three best poems, as voted for online by the public, will end up heading to the Red Planet.
People who send in their names for the DVD will be able to print off a ‘certificate of appreciation’ to record their involvement and the deadline for entries is July 1.
The voting for the three best messages begins on July 15, with the winners announced on August 8. The MAVEN mission itself is expected to blast off in late 2013.
See here for details (there’s something I never expected to Google: Nasa poetry competition…).
And remember, if you win, to link back to this blog. Martians read Laughing Housewives, I’m sure.
The Laughing Housewife 
I sent mine: http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars/wp-content/themes/goingtomars/images/certificate.png haiku:
Whenever you go,
take sense of humour along –
earthlings love to laugh.
I wrote more cynical ones but thought better of it!
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Did you just write that? It’s great!
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Should I join a race
For a rhyme spaced in time
To no-seasoned place?
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Yes, you should;
You’d be good. 😉
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I just know that they are going to pick you Tilly! I meant your Haiku, not you. We would miss you too much if they picked you to go off to Mars. You can’t go to Mars and that’s final. Your Haiku yes, you, no.:)
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Hope the Martians don’t read your comment, dear Laurie: sweet but garbled 🙂
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I’m often garbled lol! If the Martians knew you, they would understand why we are keeping you for ourselves.:)
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Never unleash a Tilly on an alien!
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Lol
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Why do we assume the Martians know English? Or even that they know how a DVD works? However, your readers have come up so far with good poems and I’m sure the Martians, if they can access them, will be thrilled with them. NASA should be, too.
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Are you going to try?
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My entry:
To my Martian friend, Ku
From the good earth
I send this greeting, Haiku.
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lolollolololololol! If that doesn’t win, there’s no justice in the world!
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I am following but not receiving…why is that please
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I see you’ve followed again. Let me know if you don’t get tomorrow’s joke post.
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No I did not get anything
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No I did not get anything
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So you’ve had nothing since you followed?
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Not a blip
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Not a peep!
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All I can suggest is that you add a link to your blogroll and check me every day 🙂
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Good luck, Tilly. I assume you will be entering the competition. 🙂
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Just go for it … Linda. I don’t have a clue about poetry … and don’t know anything about NASA – you’re the gift here.
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Don’t go
Don’t go
Don’t go
No life, no water, no Spud.
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Love it!
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Okay…I’m going to do this…it may improve my readership…a few Marian readers couldn’t hurt. 🙂
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Excellent! You write great haiku!
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You should definitely enter! I can’t write poetry to save my life, but your poems are often good!
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Thank you 😀
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