In the long run men hit only what they aim at.
— Henry David Thoreau
To set foot on the soil of the asteroids, to lift by hand a rock from the Moon, to observe Mars from a distance of several tens of kilometers, to land on its satellite or even on its surface, what can be more fantastic? From the moment of using rocket devices a new great era will begin in astronomy: the epoch of the more intensive study of the firmament.
— Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky “Father of Russian Astronautics” [1896]
