The little robot
Was little more
Than a camera
Affixed by a metal pole
To a bank of cryotubes.

It could not move.
It could not speak.
Its job was simple:
To establish
When it was safe
And activate the release.

The little robot
On its little pole
On its bank of tubes
Had been sitting in this spot
For thirty-two years now.

It watched the new planet.
It saw lush meadows,
Sparkling water.
It detected oxygen.
But it had seen the old Earth.

It was unsafe to activate the release.