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In the Studio: Ada Limón: A poem for Nasa

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07/03/2023 GMT

Ada Limón: A poem for Nasa

BBC World Service - In the Studio, Ada Limón: A poem for Nasa

The US poet laureate creates a new work for a mission to Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter

US poet laureate Ada Limón crafts an original poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, which is heading to Jupiter’s icy moon.

A poet can’t sleep. She sits at a desk in a wooden house at the heart of a palm forest, watching the night sky through the window. The full moon lights up the palm fronds, which dance in the wind. She has been tasked with writing a poem that will be sent into space, to another planet’s distant moon. What should she say? What is the message in a bottle that she should launch out into the solar system? How can she begin writing a poem that speaks of the fragile wonders of our home planet? That expresses our hope that there might be other life out there somewhere, in the stars?   

In the Studio follows US poet laureate Ada Limón as she crafts an original poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon. Her poem will be engraved on the Clipper spacecraft, which will launch in 2024 and travel 1.8 billion miles to reach Europa - a journey that will last six years.

We follow Ada’s creative process over several months, from her first meetings with the NASA team, through many drafts of the poem and a visit to NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory in California to see the Europa Clipper under construction. 

Presented by Mair Bosworth.

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