well “among” is a somewhat arbitrary reference point. There will be stars on every side of you, which certainly makes you “among” them. Just not really any more so than when you were when you were on earth and not dying in the frigid emptiness of space.
Anonymous
I can’t help but think that maybe it got reversed somewhere along the way. I wonder if it might have originally been: “shoot for the stars, if you fail you’ll get to the moon”. But it’s still fraught with peril, ask Jim Lovell on that one.
Anonymous
LOL! This is my husband to a T. He is so much a realist and sometimes, it’s just a real bummer. Thank goodness I love him so much! 🙂
Bob Becker
Ah… no. The nearest star is a lot closer than that. It’s the sun.
Kevin_Of_Bangor
Came to say what Bob did.
Nathan
I sort of expected them to also say something about needing sufficient velocity to leave the solar system. Without enough velocity you wont be going to any star, even if you do miss the moon.
Tom Elmer
Haha. My mother sent me a magnet with that saying on it. It’s been bugging me for exactly those reasons. That’s the danger when you try to send something like that to a physicist.
Brilliant. I said something to this effect last week when I saw the phrase on a bookmark or coffee mug or something – I think my words were “Go ahead and shoot for the moon, but if you miss you’ll drift helplessly into deep space with no hope of rescue.” For some reason, my wife glared at me.
