This is the Swiss winner of ESA's XMM Essay Competition "What's new Mr. Galileo?":


THE SPACE...

Such a fascinating place but so little explored. Its mysteries make it even more interesting. It reflects many dreams and many sayings. The astronomy, which has already answered to many questions, has still a long way to go : When will the first tourist trip to the moon take place ? When are we going to be able to live on another planet ? Do the aliens exist ? So many questions remain without any answer.

It's up to the scientists to make us discover this extraordinary word. Those same scientists who are sending more and more satellites around the earth, hope that there is still enough place around the blue planet to work. Those machines, which turn all around the world, are very important for us. So, let's wish good luck to those « precious toys » of the future and let's hope that they (reserve) provide us many surprises on which we are fand.

The space is like a book with an infinite number of pages. The first one written by a certain Copernicus (1543) but the church decided to shut this book, to censor this page. One intended to open this work again, because everybody desired to know what was just under their eyes. The new author of this story was called « Gallilée » (1600), that equipped with a telescope noticed that the world twuned around the sun, the relief of the moon and the presence of stars, following precisely Copernic's writes. But the church, again closed like a dunce this book. Around 1950, we began to write the pages of the story again, this time, like in the cinema, the man was not the witness, but the actor of it. The first actor was Youvi Gagarin. Form this moment, the pages were filled in faster and faster. The second chapter was published in 1960 with the title : « Objectif moon », followed by « We have gone on the moon ». For « Objectif moon », the author was not Hergé, but the Americans and the Russians while for « We have gone on the moon », the actors were not Tintin, Milou or the captain Haddock, but Neil Armstrong, that marked the book and the moon of his print, with a sentence, perhaps the mast famous : « That a little step for the man but a big step for the humanity ». With the robot « Pathfinder », we went on to the second chapter : who is on the another planets ?

The satellite XXM is perhaps what the computer was for the writing, an indispensable tool for the quest of the stranger. And we hope that XXM can also to continue the book but in this one, nobody will be able to write the word « end ».


POEM

Think about the space?

About the construction of the satellite,
Everybody sees a limit to this kite,
A limit that you mustn?t overtake,
A project that you shouldn?t make.

The technicians are beginning the construction
And everybody is asking a question :
Are you mad ? This is impossible !
Now it is almost finished ans the people are not miserable.

Soon the rocket is going to go away.
But we are going to stay.
Its flame is perhaps going to dazzle some boys
And the girls are going to cry for joy.

The satellite is our angel.
It flies very well.
But it can also be a spy.
It is at the seventh sky.

A big step is made,
A dream is realized.
But I think more than ever
That the progress is not over.

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