MARVIN THE LITTLE SPACE CADET

Marvin lived on the beautiful planet of Jupiter.  He was a happy go lucky little guy who loved to fly from planet to planet and visit the other space creatures on each planet.  There was only one planet he had not gotten to yet and that was Earth.  Marvin had his heart set on visiting Earth very soon.  It was a long trip so he needed to save up a lot of money for all the fuel it would take to get to earth.

Marvin was so excited about a visit to Earth because   he had already met some of the creatures from that planet.  One day a space craft called the space shuttle landed on Jupiter and a few of the creatures from Earth got off and introduced themselves.  Marvin shook hands with the pilot, his name was John.  Marvin also found out that the creatures on Earth called themselves people.

John planted something he called a flag and Marvin had a great time watching all the things the Earth people did while they were on his planet.  One of the astronauts named Dave liked to float up in the air and play around.  He said it was like going up on a trampoline and not coming back down.  Dave thought it was a lot of fun.

John and Dave gave Marvin a toy globe of the   planet Earth.  Marvin played with it all the time along with his toy space ship.  Marvin's people flew flying saucers instead of space shuttles.  Marvin really liked John and Dave.  He thought they were the nicest creatures he had met from any of the planets he had been to.  There were two more astronauts along with Dave and John.  One was a lady named Martha and another man called Jackson.

Martha had the job of handling the rovers that the   shuttle had brought with the astronauts.  One had a long arm to pick up rocks and soil samples.  The other mostly took movies of the planet.  Marvin thought both were a lot of fun to watch.  He followed them all around and learned a lot about what they thought was important to take back to Earth from his planet.

Marvin's planet had many different kinds of robots    Marvin's favorite was the Bird Bot.   Jupiter had no animals, not even birds so someone decided to make some Bird Bots.  Marvin loved to watch them especially when they wanted to look behind them.  Instead of turning around they just bent down and looked through their legs.  Marvin thought that was very funny!

Even the top fellow who ran the whole plant was a robot.   He was like our President and had a lot of responsibility.  Marvin's teacher was Ms. Roberta the robot.  Her favorite thing to do when she wasn't teaching class was to play chess.  She was very good at it.  Martha started dropping by to play with Ms. Roberta but had never beaten her yet.

   One day Jackson was doing a spacewalk to get to a   satellite that was just above the Jupiter atmosphere.  As Jackson floated out to the satellite he looked down toward earth.  You could see the reflection of the planet earth in his face shield.  He thought of his family and friends so far away.  It wouldn't be to long before they were headed back home.

  This satellite was sent from Earth many hundreds of   years before and needed a few repairs.  It was really exciting watching Jackson float out to the satellite.  The astronauts also knew there was a powerful telescope back at NASA watching and keeping track of all that was happening on Juniper.

Juniper is a beautiful planet.  It appears to have strips around it with   rings of clouds and gas that circle the planet.  Marvin really wanted to visit Earth someday.  He had been told about all the green plants and trees as well as wonderful animals and birds all over Earth.

The only things that Jupiter had were robot dogs.    Marvin dreamed of having a warm fuzzy puppy someday like he had heard about on Earth.  From what Marvin had heard about the dogs on Earth there just seemed to be something missing with the robo dogs.  Marvin thought it was probably that warm cuddly feeling and loving ways the dogs on Earth were said to have.

When Marvin went to sleep at night he just sat    and floated in the air like all his people did.  He would dream of going to Earth and all the different things he would see.  He had heard that Earth people had many different kinds of space craft.  Rocket ships of all sizes and shapes.  It was even said that people on Earth didn't walk hardly at all anymore.

Marvin was told they had transportation vehicles that took them anywhere they wanted to go.  It sounded like a lot of fun and Marvin wanted to get there someday.  Marvin  dreamed of the first place he would visit on Earth.  In his dream it would be a Zoo.  Marvin loved animals and really wanted to see as many different ones as he could.

    The first would be the lion.  Marvin knew they were called   the king of the jungle   After that, he wanted to see the zebra.  Marvin thought a horse with stripes sounded pretty neat!  Martha would sit and tell Marvin all about the animals and the zoos.  Oh, what a great time Marvin would have if he were able to visit one someday.

Marvin pictured a monkey playing with a space craft toy that he had given the monkey.  Then he thought he would go see the giraffe.  Martha said they were so tall that they could eat leaves out of the top of trees.  Visiting a zoo would be something Marvin would remember for the rest of his life.

Jackson played guitar and decided to give it to Marvin.  He taught him how to play it and Marvin learned very fast.  John gave Marvin a toy gun and Marvin loved playing cowboy like the ones he had heard lived on Earth.  The time had come for the astronauts to return to Earth.

One of Marvin's robot friends had made some beautiful   roses that looked very real to give to Martha.  She was so pleased that a tear came to her eyes.  Like all the astronauts they were happy to be going home but would really miss everyone they had met here on Jupiter, especially Marvin.  Marvin gave the crew the peace sign.  He had heard that on Earth it meant lets be friends. 

Pilot John said, "One day we may get back again and   find that Marvin is the leader of Jupiter.  He sure is one smart little guy!"  The astronauts all waved goodbye and all their new friends on Jupiter waved back.  They were all going to miss each other.  Jupiter and Earth were definitely two planets who could someday live together.

  As the shuttle lifted off for Earth, one of Marvin's   friends jokingly held up a hitchhiking sign to Mars.   The whole crew got a big laugh out of it and Marvin just smiled.  All of them hoped that someday, someway Marvin would make it to Earth for a visit.  As the Astronauts sped through space they passed many planets.  Martha said, "I wonder how many other wonderful creatures and robots we might meet on those planets?"  Pilot John said, "We'll just have to come back someday and find out!

WHEN YOU LOOK UP AT THE SKY THE NEXT TIME, THINK ABOUT HOW MANY OTHER CREATURES MAY BE OUT THERE!