Christopher Mari > Quotes

“a.m. Max Shepherd knew few people who loved working the graveyard shift. But for him, working nights at the institute was about as plum a job as he could have wished for. Just a year into his doctoral program, he had landed a position as research assistant to Dr. Elliot Seaborne, the noted seismologist currently heading up the Lunar Seismology Initiative. A NASA-sponsored project, the LSI was yet another component of the agency’s increasing desire to mount a return to the Moon. A new series of lunar missions had been talked about since Shepherd had been in grammar school. But since NASA had scrapped its shuttle program back in 2011, the Moon had become”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“CHRISTOPHER MARI was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at Fordham University. He has edited books on a wide variety of topics, including three on space exploration. His writing has appeared”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“right? A camera sends out a flash of light and records the light that’s reflected back through the camera lens. Got it? So, instead of a lens and film, radar uses an antenna and digital computer tapes to record its images. In a radar image, one can see only the light that was reflected back toward the radar antenna. So, what we did was send one of our little birdies up there, ran a few imaging cycles, and whap!” He struck a few keys like a concert pianist finishing a sonata. Instantly an eerie image of the lunar landscape popped up. At its center was a dark-blue mass. “There she is,” said Egan. “Since the image is so dark, we can”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“Oh the President promised more money, sure, Dieckman thought as he slumped in his chair, but how much of that’s actually going to get to us? The military’s going to be clamoring for more funds now with the Chinese fleet conducting military exercises off of Taiwan. Deke scratched out some rough figures for the mission”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“no human being had left the confines of near-Earth orbit since Richard Nixon was president.”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.” Zell”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“I bet old Cal would love to sink his teeth into this, he thought with a grin, provided he still has any. Deke picked up the phone and punched in his assistant’s extension. “Mattie, can you come in here for a minute?”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“In order to embrace the future, one had to be willing to dare to imagine, had to accept that morality was merely an excuse for a weakness of will.”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“The only feature breaking up the chaotic terrain of rocks and impact craters and hills before them was a remarkably straight black trench stretching across almost their entire field of vision like the parted lips of a long-dead god.”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“God gives us all divine gifts and abilities, and we must be humble before them. Your gifts have brought you to a unique moment, and your abilities will guide you through it. The only question is whether or not you are willing to be humble enough to better understand the path upon which God has set you.”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“sophisticated than the ones placed there by the Apollo astronauts more than forty years earlier. Now all that was left was for them to do their thing. Which is where Max Shepherd came in. Pretty slow night up there, Shepherd thought as he glanced at Stellaluna’s telemetry. He began surfing through the channels on the lab’s thirty-six-inch flat-screen television. There wasn’t much on”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“look around you. The whole damn world’s coming apart at the seams, and we’re being offered a chance to help put it back together. This has ceased to be just about you and your father. It’s bigger than that now. Bigger than any of us. And unless you’ve got a glass navel, I’d suggest you get your head out of your ass so you can actually see what’s going on here.” Donovan”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“unless you’ve got a glass navel, I’d suggest you get your head out of your ass so you can actually see what’s going on here.”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“McKenna smiled and shook his head. He’d known the President long enough to recognize when her mind was made up. “All right then,” he said. “Let’s pull up a chair and go over some—”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“Everyone knew the arguments made by every skinflint legislator and administration who had diminished their budget: What’s the benefit of going into space? What does it get us? Where’s the bottom-line profit?”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“In Atlanta a minister told his congregation that the pulse had been the first sign of the Apocalypse. In California people gathered around the Hollywood sign with banners welcoming the aliens. In London a man stood outside Westminster Abbey in the freezing rain holding a sign that read “Jesus Is an Alien.” In”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“Staying true to ourselves in a world that’s always trying to make us less than what we are is everything. It’s the only thing.”
― Christopher Mari, The Beachhead

“When a new series of manned lunar missions had initially been proposed back in 2004, the plan had been to slowly phase out the reusable but tragically unreliable shuttle fleet in favor of Apollo-style one-shot capsules, with the goal of reaching the Moon sometime in the next decade.”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“What is that?” asked an elderly man, a security guard she knew as Li. He walked outside to have a look while Soong attempted to calm the children down. Almost immediately he ran back in, a look of sheer panic on his face. “Get them to safety!” he cried, pointing at the students. “Now!”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“Unless the Moon just exploded, I don’t care,” came the sleepy voice on the other end. “Sorry”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“In its 150 years of existence, Dar es Salaam had grown from a small settlement and prospective summer home of Sultan Seyyid Majid to one of the largest cities in Africa, with a population of more than four million. People from all over Europe and Asia poured into its streets daily, jockeying for space with local tribesmen. Dar es Salaam was a disorienting experience for the first-time visitor. Hawkers and peddlers sold their wares in the crowded streets. Muslim women scurried by, shrouded in buibuis. Indian traders enticed prospective buyers with a myriad of spices and silks from the world’s most exotic corners”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“We just don’t know for sure, General,” Stein said. “We’ve only got sporadic radio contact with local NEST teams in and around DC. But there’s no visual evidence of a detonation.” “Hell, I could have told them that,” said McKenna irritably.”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“unless you’ve got a glass navel, I’d suggest you get your head out of your ass”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“Be brave, my lad, he would always say. There’s no fear in the unknown, only in the lack of trying to make it known. His”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“I’m smart enough to know that I know nothing—and dumb enough to believe I’ll someday learn enough.”
― Christopher Mari, The Beachhead

“two million years there are any hostile forces on the Moon”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“Mark my words: the future of the world is in jeopardy. We have precious little time left. Good luck and farewell.”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“unless you’ve got a glass navel, I’d suggest you get your head out of your ass so”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“I have seen old ships sail like swans asleep.”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms

“While the JSC’s primary focus was the stars, scores of scientists there also toiled daily to make life on Earth better. Everything from memory foam to scratchproof eyeglass lenses came from the JSC, using NASA technology developed for spaceflight. If travel to the stars represented the cutting edge of technological achievement, then the JSC was forever sharpening the blade. After”
― Christopher Mari, Ocean of Storms