NASA Seeks Haikus to Send to Mars

Posted on May 3, 2013

NASA will launch its Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft in November. The spacecraft will measure the Martian magnetic field. It will also carry a DVD that contains three haikus. NASA wants the public to submit haikus for the spacecraft. The three haikus that go on the spacecraft will be determined by an online vote.

The deadline for all submissions is July 1. The online public vote to determine the top three messages to be placed on the DVD will begin on July 15. The submissions page can be found here and the rules page can be found here. Here is an excerpt from the rules page:

Messages must be in English and be in the form of a haiku poem. For the MAVEN contest, we are defining a haiku as a poem made of three lines; the first and last lines must have exactly five syllables each and the middle line must have exactly seven syllables. All messages must be original and not plagiarized in any way.

An artist's conception of the MAVEN Mars orbiter that will be carrying short poetry while measuring the magnetic field on Mars is pictured above.