Things are looking up, way up

“Hurry to the stable, Matthias. We need you!”

So begins the ebook, A Baby Changes our World, written by Sun City resident Ken Kozy. The story outlines the events of the Christmas Nativity story from the viewpoint of Matthias, a nine year-old stable boy living in Bethlehem. Later in the story, young Matthias looks to the skies, in awe of the bright star he sees glowing in the sky.

Sun City author Ken Kozy’s ebook was selected by NASA for inclusion aboard the OSIRIS-REx, a part exploratory, part-time capsule vessel headed for the Bennu asteroid. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)

“I like Christmas,” says Kozy. “It’s a very happy time of year, and so joyful. It was just a natural I started writing about that.”

Kozy belongs to the Huntley Library Writers Group as well as the Sun City creative writing group, Write On. Kozy says he worked on the ebook for several years.

Just as he was finishing the story, Kozy heard about “We the Explorers,” a campaign by NASA inviting submissions of original artwork, prose, poetry, music, or short videos to be included in a time capsule. As he wrote and revised, he never dreamed the story could end up traveling beyond Earth, hurtling through space. He jumped at the opportunity.

“It’s an overwhelming thought,” says Kozy. “Our grandparents would look up into the sky, and to them, that was the unreachable star. Here we are, getting into interstellar travel. It’s fascinating.”

Kozy’s story was one of 7,000 submissions chosen to ride on OSIRIS-REx (short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer), a planned NASA asteroid study and sample return mission.

Kozy is overwhelmed and overjoyed by the idea that his work could be rediscovered generations from now. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)

OSIRIS-REx, scheduled to launch September 8, will voyage to 101995 Bennu, an asteroid with a 500 meter girth (.3 mile) that scientist believes could collide with the Earth in the late 22nd century. Scientists expect Bennu may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of the water and organic molecules that may have made their way to Earth.

(Image provided)

The spacecraft will get the sample from the surface of Bennu, then send the sample back to Earth; but OSIRIS-REx will remain out in space, continuing its orbit of the sun indefinitely. Along with it, Kozy’s ebook and other relics of the present-day Earth will orbit the sun, until future generations or visitors to our solar system find it.

“It seems to be a fascination, doesn’t it? Time capsules buried in the 1800s are being unearthed now and everyone’s pretty excited about it,” says Kozy, who hopes the same excitement will prevail when the OSIRIS-REx’s time capsule is discovered in the future.

Like Matthias, the narrator of his story, Kozy will be gazing in awe at the heavens in early September. He and his wife Mary will go to Cape Canaveral so they can see the launch with their own eyes.

“It’s a great feeling to know something you contributed to the space program will be in there,” he says. “Millennia from now, it may be investigated again. Who know who will come across the time capsule?”

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