Space Weather Hazard Report

[bnewman]

The source song is lovely, but I can't hear the line "hanging in the afterglow of a solar flare" without thinking of space weather and what it can do to a spaceship.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Solar Flare" by Sam Baardman

 

listen to this song

/ G C D G / D G C - / 1st / C D G - /

 

There's a voice 'cross the wireless, it's tuneless and tireless:

You'd better batten down out there.

I can hear myself saying it, without really weighing it;

It's good to know when to beware.

 

/ Em D G - / Em C D - / " / C D C D / G ... /

 

There's a spaceship just outside my window

Hanging in the afterglow of a solar flare,

And their systems weren't shielded — only heaven knows why —

EMP knocked 'em out and they're dead in the sky

 

Every spacer remembers how we all used to dream

Made our wishes on shooting stars;

But that one now was a paint chip that flaked off someone's spaceship

And it's liable to punch a hole in yours!

 

There's a comet just outside my window

Leaving a trail of dust a million miles long

And if you don't want that dust on your clean solar cells

You'll punch in a new course and avoid it like hell

 

/ Em D C - / / / /

 

You know, space can be empty as emptiness

And space can be deadly as anyone's guess

When all is prediction and pattern

Sometimes your ship stalls, and sometimes it splatters

 

May you always find safety as you travel through space,

By the light of stars, moon, and sun;

And watch out for debris from that crash in '63

Along the transfer from L4 to L1.

 

The whole system's right outside my window

And we're tracking each speck of dust and each ion trail

From the moment you launch until the moment you land

Your space weather report will always be on this band