Go!

And so

The vehicle moved

Down the path towards

The bottom of icy Miranda

That moon of Uranus

And Neal the passenger was having fun

And so he screamed

‘Woe!’

‘What do you mean, Woe’

Asked John, who was standing on

The surface of Miranda

And his fellow engineer Thomas

Smiled at him

And the two stood together

On the ice of  Miranda

As Neal moved down the slope

In the vehicle and screamed, ‘Woe!’

So Thomas explained to John

‘We’re just having fun

These eight-mile high cliffs of Miranda –

Eight-mile high ice cliffs –

Are a great place for fun

And so when we’re done

Neal will have great fun

And I’m telling you

There’s no better place to have fun!’

Thomas and John

Engineers Extraodinaire

Just having fun

So Thomas explained

‘We built the electromagnetic accelerator

To achieve escape velocity

We use gravity down the icy slope

And electromagnetic acceleration

And it all makes for a good run!’

By now

Neal was accelerating down the icy slope

‘Oh !’ he cried, ‘Oh !

This is too much!’

And Thomas and John laughed

John yelled back

‘You’re moving!’

And Neal said, ‘I’m really moving!’

And John replied, ‘I can see it’s so!’

‘I’m having fun!’

Neal screamed from the vehicle

It looked like a bobsled

And now it was almost flying

Down the slopes of Miranda

Soon it would reach the bottom

Then zoom up into space

And were Neal lucky

He’d have another run

And Thomas explained on the go

‘When he hits

Bottom

The ice course curves upward

We designed it that way

To get maximum acceleration into space

So look at him go

Look at him!

He’s getting so low!’

Neal was having a great first run

Down the icy slopes of Miranda

The course was modelled

After the Olympic ski jump

And soon Neal would launch

Away from icy Miranda

And into space

Launched from the surface

Far into space when all was done!

Then Neal went as low as one could go

Then back up again

Up the icy launch ramp

Up quickly now!

And the vehicle soared into space!

Into the void it soared!

It roared with a sound unheard on Earth

And Neal forgot

Gravity his fallen foe!