Should mankind even be going to space
While we’ve still so many problems on Earth to solve?
What? You mean we’ve got to fix everyone’s issues
Before we seek, somewhere else, to revolve?
We’d have gone nowhere fast
Throughout the past, if that was the attitude
Never leave your town, or island
Trapping genes, cos, to intrude, may seem rude
But the idea of escaping at velocity, is quite a monstrosity
Just to sink back down another gravity well, is pure futility
For “The surface of a planet is a sub-optimal environment
For any population with growing ambition and ability”
Infinite growth…
On a finite Earth
Spot the flaw?
Need I say more?
We won’t just go to outer space, to escape gravity
That’s one of the first things, our heavies will need
We’ll synthesise it, I’m told, once we get a foothold
Making ring stations from spent rockets and debris
Manufacturing solar-powered greenhouses…
That fly free and true. Just like Earth
Is a humble first step, to green the galaxy anew
With at least enough gravity, for a proper lavatory
Rather than have the piss taken, and shit sucked out of you
Though, I’ve got to say, ain’t my idea of a holiday
Floating adrift in a tin can, that’s been hurled…
With pilgrim father bots, who really would rather not
Suffer such discomforts, while seeking new worlds
We’ll just send AI robots there, to do our dirty work
Pass on the risk to them, reap the rewards, and…
We’ll make sovereign stations, for hominins of all nations
Take free-fliers on mystery trips, and see where we land
Somewhere out there, monoliths of lost knowledge, are growing
Kep, set the controls for a random bearing, and flare
We can’t be lost, if we don’t know where we’re going
And we’ll know where we’re going, when we get there
Tear through graveyard orbits, where we brush junk at will
Under the carpet of clouds, down to our warming landfill
Dodge the bodge, in fear, steer clear, of avalanching debris
At 10 thousand miles per hour, each speck of dust… is our enemy