I feel that I've often pointed out that there are countless aspects of life and nature that scientists and scientific thinkers cannot explain. Why the universe is accelerating in its expansion and what came before the Big Bang serve as compelling examples. The process of science provides a way to seek answers to those questions.

But investment in space stimulates society, it stimulates it economically, it stimulates it intellectually, and it gives us all passion.

Our goal in science is to discover universal laws of nature. That pursuit fills me with wonder.

You start doing the addictive behavior to feel good and then your receptors get overloaded with dopamine, then you stop doing the addictive thing and some of the receptors have shut down and you don't have enough dopamine to feel good. So then you feel bad and go back to the addictive behavior to get more dopamine. The strange thing is that it works with what we think of as uppers and downers and whatever you call gambling - sidewaysers.

I hope climate science becomes the big thing. And then what I want is electrical engineers to solve the world's energy problems, energy distribution problems. I want mechanical engineers to make better transportation systems. I want chemical engineers to develop better solar panels, and so on.

The world's going to change climatically. We just want to control the change. We want to have a high quality of life for billions of people as we pass through this era.

You stop planetary exploration, those people who do that extraordinary work are going to have to go do something else.