Alan Stern

If you go to planetary science meetings and hear technical talks on Pluto, you will hear experts calling it a planet every day. ”

I actually started my career in planetary science with a master's thesis on Pluto. ”

No one working as an astronomer is shackled in chains. This is a tremendous profession. There are lots of neat people, and you get to do cool things. If I had to say something negative, it's that there's often a whole lot of travel that takes me away from my children. That can be a bummer a lot of times. ”

It's very hard to motivate yourself and others with only one goal - particularly if it's complex and you might not get there until years down the road. That's why intermediate goals are so important. ”

As a scientist in charge of space sensors and entire space missions before I was at NASA, I myself was involved in projects that overran. But that's no excuse for remaining silent about this growing problem or failing to champion reform. ”

We're in the space exploration business, and the outer solar system is a wild, wooly place. We haven't explored it very well. ”

Having a diverse suite of U.S.-manned spaceflight systems to access space is inherently robust. ”

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. ”

I like the planets because they are real places that you can go to and send machines to. Faraway astronomy - galactic astronomy and extra-galactic astronomy - is really cool stuff, but to me, it's about destinations. ”

It is only by freeing NASA from routine human transport to low-Earth orbit that we can afford to once again see American astronauts exploring distant worlds. ”