When I started working with NASA in 1989 as part of a mission to send spacecraft to Pluto, I knew it would take at least 10-15 years to see results of my efforts.
Alan SternRead
I can't imagine how many kids around the world will look at pictures of Pluto and think, 'I want to grow up to be a scientist.'
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the inspiring impact of scientific exploration on childrenβs aspirations.
Alan Stern highlights the profound effect that images of celestial bodies like Pluto can have on the younger generation. By showcasing such discoveries, science can ignite curiosity and inspire kids to pursue careers in scientific fields, showcasing the importance of inspirational scientific achievements in shaping future aspirations.
Themes
ScienceInspirationChildrenAspirationExploration
In practice
Example use cases
In a classroom discussion about space exploration, this quote can inspire students to pursue careers in science.
More from Alan Stern
All quotes βThe first mission to Mars did not expect to find craters and river valleys, and yet they did. The first mission to Jupiter didn't expect to find ocean worlds and volcano worlds, but they did.
Alan SternRead
If two billion people wanted to watch a robot fly by Pluto, imagine what it will be like when the first humans step on Mars. It'll be the most unifying event anybody could ever put on.
Alan SternRead
We're going to find Marses and maybe Earths out in the solar system's attic of the Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt.
Alan SternRead
Similar quotes
I have experimental evidence that time travel is not possible.
Stephen HawkingRead
The calculus was the first achievement of modern mathematics and it is difficult to overestimate its importance. I think it defines more unequivocally than anything else the inception of modern mathematics; and the system of mathematical analysis, which is its logical development, still constitutes the greatest technical advance in exact thinking.
John Von NeumannRead
Put glibly:_x000D_ _x000D_ In science if you know what you are doing you should not be doing it._x000D_ _x000D_ In engineering if you do not know what you are doing you should not be doing it._x000D_ _x000D_ Of course, you seldom, if ever, see either pure state.
Richard HammingRead
Politicians, real-estate agents, used-car salesmen, and advertising copy-writers are expected to stretch facts in self-serving directions, but scientists who falsify their results are regarded by their peers as committing an inexcusable crime. Yet the sad fact is that the history of science swarms with cases of outright fakery and instances of scientists who unconsciously distorted their work by seeing it through lenses of passionately held beliefs.
Martin GardnerRead
Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible.
Rod SerlingRead
Trying to capture the physicists' precise mathematical description of the quantum world with our crude words and mental images is like playing Chopin with a boxing glove on one hand and a catcher's mitt on the other.
George JohnsonRead