Over one thousand haiku poems selected from submissions to the ‘Going to Mars with Maven’ contest, sponsored by the University of Colorado Boulder, will be traveling to the red planet aboard NASA’s spacecraft MAVEN in November. The contest, also open to international contestants, sought out Haikus with a Mars or MAVEN mission-to-Mars theme. The winning Haiku, by Benedict Smith of the UK, emerged from a submission pool of over twelve-thousand haiku.

And what is Benedict’s winning message? “It’s funny, they named / Mars after the God of War / Have a look at Earth”. Another top-five vote getter, by Greg Pruett of Idaho, was less cynical and more sci-fi friendly: “distant red planet / the dreams of earth beings flow / we will someday roam”.

All of the winners and recipients of special recognition, plus haiku that received more than two votes will be included on a DVD attached to the MAVEN spacecraft for the journey to Mars. What does this mean for the future editors of history books (ones that mention poetry)? That poetry set foot on Mars before man himself!

To view the winning haiku poems and enter your name to go with Maven visit the website at: http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars/send-your-name/contest-winners/.

Source: University of Colorado Boulder