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All Quotes by author - Ellen Stofan
" A lot of my role is advocacy, and as a scientist, you're an advocate, too, because you are coming up with a theory and having to convince your fellow scientists that you're right. "
Because
Theory
You
" As a card-carrying space nerd and NASA's chief scientist, I love space movies, from 'Star Trek' to 'Star Wars' to my all-time favorite - 'The Dish', an Australian comedy that celebrates that first moment when Neil Armstrong stepped down onto the surface of our moon. "
Moon
Love
Down
" As chief scientist, it's sort of my job to look at bridges between what we do and to see the connections. But when we try to understand how are planets around other stars habitable... to looking back at the Earth - how are the changes that are taking place, how are they going to affect humanity? "
Place
Stars
Looking Back
" As we visit Mars multiple times, we will build up infrastructure on the surface to expand the capabilities and reach of humans on Mars. "
Infrastructure
Build
Mars
" Being able to have a laboratory on Mars, being able to have some sort of sustained human presence on Mars in the future, I think, is critically important for science. "
Future
Think
Science
" Communication is an issue where we can improve, and if I can do anything to help, I am happy to. "
Communication
I Can
I Am
" Everybody has busy lives, but you can tell people, 'Go outside and look at the night sky. We've been able to demonstrate that every star you see probably has a planet around it.' "
People
Look
You
" Every time I give a talk, I ask the audience - especially if it's kids - how many want to go to Mars. At least half raise their hands. I don't think there's going to be any shortage of volunteers. "
Time
Talk
Think
" Humans can actually read a landscape, go through a lot of rocks - crack them open, throw them, pick up the next one. Rovers are great - they do amazing science - but it is a lot more tedious process; they go much less far than a human can cover in a day. "
Day
Amazing
Great
" I always like to say just think you were a doctor with only one patient. You might understand how that person gets sick, how they get better, but you understand nothing about the progression of disease or how humans in general get ill. Now take an Earth scientist: you only have one planet to study. "
Think
Earth
Doctor
" If I had an unlimited budget, I would really be probing that question of life because we know what the questions are, and we know what the destinations are. "
Question
Life
Know
" If you think of the Apollo capsule coming into Earth with a parachute, the Mars atmosphere is just so thin, you've got to find some way of slowing yourself down really rapidly. "
Down
Yourself
You
" I grew up in this business... A lot of my life has been centered around this question about how NASA is helping us to understand our own home planet... and to understand our place in the universe. "
Place
My Life
Life
" I live an hour from NASA's HQ in Washington, D.C., and sitting in a jam stresses me out. "
Me
Washington
Sitting
" I'm actually a NASA brat. My father was a rocket scientist. He started working at NASA before it was NASA in 1959. "
Rocket
Started
Working
" I'm so biased to this issue of the origins of life and the limits of life. "
Origins
Biased
Issue
" Instead of being able to look at smaller interesting research projects, I am trying to see the links between all the research NASA does. For me, that's extremely fun because I get to go play and learn about areas of science that I know nothing about. "
Know
I Am
Fun
" It's part of the human character to want to know what's over the next hill, to want to know what's beyond. "
Want
Hill
Human
" I wish someone would redo 'Dune.' "
Would
Dune
Someone
" Mars missions will require up to three years in reduced gravity, so we need to make sure astronauts can not only survive but thrive as they move outward to explore this new world. "
World
Need
Mars
" Mars was this water-based planet, and we know there was stable water on the surface for a long time, which is critical for life having a chance to develop. "
Life
Know
Chance
" My key aim is to get man on the surface of Mars by the mid-2030s. "
Key
Get
Surface
" One of the big things about space exploration is that it is as expensive as it is complicated, and you need all the countries of the world to help if you want to accomplish big goals. "
You
World
Space
" People see space as a place where you go and cooperate. "
Space
People
Go
" Prior to Magellan, due to the fact that we knew it was so hot on Venus, we thought that the rocks at the surface would behave more plastically, more like Silly Putty than like solid rock in the way that we think of it, like the rocks that I'm sitting on. "
Rock
Hot
Rocks
" So many people I talk to who work in technology, you ask them, 'What got you interested in science?' and those from my generation say, 'The Apollo landings.' "
Science
You
Work
" 'The Martian' may be fiction, but at NASA, we are working to make it a reality. "
NASA
May
Fiction
" The public has an incredible capacity for appreciating the wonder of our planet, our solar system, our universe. "
Universe
Wonder
Planet
" There's a huge question of whether you really need water for life. "
Water
You
Really
" To avoid congestion, I get up at 5:10, grab a slice of raisin toast, and leave the house at 6 A.M. My husband, Tim Dunn, who works for an environmental agency, is still asleep when I slip out, and I find that rather annoying. "
House
Husband
Up
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