“In the brief silence that followed, Mott reflected that this good woman had seen space and been repelled by it. As the wonder-machines leaped into the air at Canaveral, probing ever outward, extending the dimensions of the comprehensible universe, she had intentionally contracted the perimiters of her world, making it ever smaller and easier to control. And he concluded that all persons are obligated to wrestle with the universe as they perceive it, and those who are terrified by the prospect retreat to little corners from which they seek to destroy the machines doing the outward probing and the men who manage them.”
—James A. Michener, Space

Though this amply explains the Total Perspective Vortex, it also strikes me as a remarkably powerful sentiment. We are obligated to wrestle with the universe as we perceive it, and more importantly, we must not be scared. That fear leads us only into a denial of truth, which endangers the future of humanity itself.