SPACE TRAVEL QUOTES II

quotations about space travel and exploration

Space Travel quote

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And now 'tis man who dares assault the sky...
And as we come to claim our promised place,
Aim only to repay the good you gave,
And warm with human love the chill of space.

THOMAS G. BERGIN
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"Space Prober"


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Earth is the best planet in our solar system. We go to space to save Earth.

JEFF BEZOS

Twitter, April 22, 2018

Tags: Jeff Bezos


We shape life, we travel space
But we don't know the words to the songs of the ocean

STAR ONE

"Songs of the Ocean"


Our flight must be not only to the stars but into the nature of our own beings. Because it is not merely where we go, to Alpha Centauri or Betelgeuse, but what we are as we make our pilgrimage there. Our natures will be going there, too.

PHILIP K. DICK

"The Android and the Human"

Tags: Philip K. Dick


There are so many problems to solve on this planet first before we begin to trash other worlds.

E. A. BUCCHIANERI

Brushstrokes of a Gadfly


Across the sea of space, the stars are other suns.

CARL SAGAN

Cosmos

Tags: Carl Sagan


Nobody is going to emigrate from this planet, not ever. On a local scale--the solar system--it makes little sense to continue exploration by sending live astronauts to the moon, and much less to Mars and beyond to where simple alien life forms might reasonably be sought--on Europa, the ice-sheathed moon of Jupiter, and on fiery Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. It will be far cheaper, and entail no risk to human life, to explore space with robots. The technology is already well along, in rocket propulsion, robotics, remote analysis, and information transmissions, to send robots that can do more than any human visitor, including decisions made on the spot, and to transmit images and data of the highest quality back to Earth. Granted that our spirit soars at the thought of a human being--one of us--walking on a celestial body like explorers on unmapped continents in times long past. Yet the real thrill will be in learning in detail what is out there, and seeing ourselves what it looks like, in crisp detail, at our virtual feet two meters away, picking up soil and possibly organisms with our virtual hands and analyzing them.... It is an especially dangerous delusion if we see emigration into space as a solution to be taken when we have used up this planet.... Earth, by the twenty-second century, can be turned, if we so wish, into a permanent paradise for human beings.

EDWARD O. WILSON

The Social Conquest of Earth


Imagine we could accelerate continuously at 1 g -- what we're comfortable with on good old terra firma -- to the midpoint of our voyage, and decelerate continuously at 1 g until we arrive at our destination. It would take a day to get to Mars, a week and a half to Pluto, a year to the Oort Cloud, and a few years to the nearest stars.

CARL SAGAN

Pale Blue Dot


The second best thing about space travel is that the distances involved make war very difficult, usually impractical, and almost always unnecessary. This is probably a loss for most people, since war is our race's most popular diversion, one which gives purpose and color to dull and stupid lives. But it is a great boon to the intelligent man who fights only when he must--never for sport.

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

Time Enough For Love

Tags: Robert A. Heinlein


To venture into space we must be strong-willed and determined. We must be fully committed to its exploration and discovery; space permits no half measures and is unforgiving of mistakes.

HENRY JOY MCCRACKEN

LM, November 1997

Tags: Henry Joy McCracken


The planet was our mother and our burial ground. No wonder the human spirit wished to leave. Leave this prolific belly. Leave also this great tomb.

SAUL BELLOW

Mr. Sammler's Planet

Tags: Saul Bellow


I'd sooner exchange ideas with the birds on earth than learn to carry on intergalactic communications with some obscure race of humanoids on a satellite planet from the world of Betelgeuse.

EDWARD ABBEY

"The First Morning", Desert Solitaire

Tags: Edward Abbey


Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
Ground Control to Major Tom (ten, nine, eight, seven, six)
Commencing countdown, engines on (five, four, three)
Check ignition and may God's love be with you (two, one, liftoff)

DAVID BOWIE

"Space Oddity"


Space travel is just too darn expensive. And we know why it's too expensive. It's because we throw the rockets away. We're never going on to do these grand things and to expand into the solar system as long as we throw this hardware away. We need to build reusable rockets.

JEFF BEZOS

"Jeff Bezos Says He's Using Amazon 'Lottery Winnings' To Put Humans In Space", Newsweek, July 21, 2017


We who were meant to roam the stars go now on foot upon a ravaged earth. But above us those other worlds still hang, and still they beckon. And so is the promise still given. If we make not the mistakes of the Old Ones then shall we know in time more than the winds of this earth and the trails of this earth.

ANDRE NORTON

Star Man's Son


Human exploration and colonization of Mars will keep us busy for hundreds, even thousands, of years. During that time, there will be advances in nanotechnology, space sailing, robotics, biomolecular engineering, and artificial intelligence. These advances are occurring even now, affecting our outlook about what it means to be human and engage in human activity. Those technologies will not merely allow us to stay home on Earth and Mars, but our minds will extend our presence throughout the universe so that we will not need or want to extend our bodies there -- even if we could, which I think is doubtful.

LOUIS FRIEDMAN

"Beyond Mars: The Distant Future of Space Exploration", Discover Magazine, December 3, 2015


Human DNA spreading out from gravity's steep well like an oilslick.

WILLIAM GIBSON

Neuromancer

Tags: William Gibson


Today the stars and tomorrow the galaxies. No force exists in the Universe that can stop us.

JAMES P. HOGAN

Inherit the Stars


Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said "Because it is there." Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

speech at Rice University, September 12, 1962


NASA's next urgent mission should be to send good poets into space so they can describe what it's really like.

SHANNON HALE

Dangerous