All Plutophiles are based in America. If you go to other countries, they have much less of an attachment to either the existence or preservation of Pluto as a planet.
When Kennedy said, ‘Let’s go to the moon,’ we didn’t yet have a vehicle that wouldn’t kill you on launch. He said we’ll land a man on the moon in eight years and bring him back. That was an audacious goal to put forth in front of the American people.
That is a big question we all have: are we alone in the universe? And exoplanets confirm the suspicion that planets are not rare.
The universe is almost 14 billion years old, and, wow! Life had no problem starting here on Earth! I think it would be inexcusably egocentric of us to suggest that we’re alone in the universe.
The urge to miniaturize electronics did not exist before the space program. I mean our grandparents had radios that was furniture in the living room. Nobody at the time was saying, ‘Gee, I want to carry that in my pocket.’ Which is a non-thought.
In modern times, if the sole measure of what’s out there flows from your five senses then a precarious life awaits you.
There is a growing awareness that we’re losing our technological competitive edge. I think there’s an awareness that we’re losing our leadership, and that maybe our self image over the past several decades has been a little bit delusional.
People like death and mayhem.
When your reasons for believing something are justified ad hoc, you are left susceptible to further discoveries undermining the rationale for that belief.
In the animal kingdom, one of the keys to survival is to outwit your enemies. And when you’re surrounded by carnivores, one of the best strategies is to fade into the background and disappear.
I want to put on the table, not why 85% of the members of the National Academy of Sciences reject God, I want to know why 15% of the National Academy don’t.
After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?
The methods and tools of science perennially breach barriers, granting me confidence that our epic march of insight into the operations of nature will continue without end.
The tenacity of life is mind-boggling. We keep finding it where no one thought it could be.
It’s short-sighted to think ads won’t one day end up wherever humans are – even the moon.
Science is a cooperative enterprise spanning the generations. It’s the passing of a torch from teacher to student to teacher. A community of minds, reaching back to antiquity and forward to the stars.
With no gravitational force to work against, your body not only doesn’t need the same amount of muscle and bone, it starts breaking them down. As on Earth, so in space: use it or lose it. And exercise may not solve the problem.
No one wants to die, and no one wants to die poor. These are the two fundamental truths that transcend culture, they transcend politics, they transcend economic cycles.
We need to look at NASA, not as a handout, but as an investment.
The greatest of people that have ever been in society, they were never versions of someone else. They were themselves.