Per aspera ad astra (or, less commonly, ad astra per aspera) is a Latin phrase meaning "through hardships to the stars". The phrase is one of the many Latin sayings that use the expressionad astra, meaning "to the stars".
In Kurt Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan, it was quoted as both the motto of Martian Imperial Commandos, a unit within the larger Martian Army, in addition to being the motto of Kansas, U.S.A., Earth, Solar System, Milky Way.
In Kenta Shinohara's Astra Lost in Space, it is inscribed on a plaque on the bridge of the ship that the crew subsequently decided to name the Astra.[18]
On the SCP Foundation website, the Ad Astra Per Aspera canon is a series of stories set in the 21st and 22nd centuries where humanity has been forced to abandon Earth, establishing settlements elsewhere in the Solar System and political relations with extraterrestrial life.[19]
The title of a composition by Hasaan Ibn Ali from his second Atlantic recording, never released, the master tapes of which were destroyed in the Atlantic warehouse fire of 1978.[20]
The subtitle of an instrumental song by the symphonic metal band Nightwish (2020).
Tomo Milicevic of the band 30 Seconds to Mars has a tattoo on his right forearm reading 'per aspera et astra', with the band's logo in the background in red.
American singer, rapper, dancer, actress, and songwriter Kiely Williams has "Per aspera ad astra" tattooed on her right forearm.
Title of a play depicting the history of the fictional Maycomb County in To Kill a Mockingbird, in which the translation is given as from the mud to the stars.
The phrase has been spoofed slightly by the band Ghost in the song "Per Aspera Ad Inferi" from their album Infestissumam[45] literally meaning "Through hardships to hell".[46]
In the 2015 film The Martian, at the end of the film astronaut Mark Watney is giving his first lecture to the Astronaut Candidate Program and the phrase appears embedded in the central floor area of the lecture hall around a logo.
Title of character leveling achievements in Mistwalker's mobile game Terra Battle.
Found in the Gravity Falls Journal #3, penned on the title page. Appears on the journal both in the show and on the real-life replica.[47]
The title character in Ottessa Moshfegh's novel Eileen accepts and smokes a Pall Mall and refers to the motto on the package translated as "Through the thorns to the stars."
On the ship the students find in Astra Lost in Space, there is a plaque with this saying on it.
A plaque honoring the astronauts of Apollo 1 at the launch site where they perished.
A tribute exhibit to the Apollo 1 Astronauts "Ad Astra Per Aspera - A Rough Road Leads to the Stars" opened on January 27, 2017, the 50th anniversary of the loss of the crew, at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
^Caprara, Giovanni (2002). Luigi Gussalli pioniere dello spazio, Luigi Gussalli Space Pioneer (in Italian and English). Brescia: Fondazione Civiltà Bresciana. pp. 209–627. ISBN88-86670-35-4.
