SHOOT FOR THAT OBSCURE PLANET LIGHTYEARS AWAY THAT WE THINK MIGHT HAVE WATER

Today at work I heard someone say the phrase "Shoot for the moon—even if you miss you'll land among the stars." I didn't hear the context of the conversation, and I assume they weren't giving it as real advice, but has anyone ever thought about what a weird saying it is? Because I spent the next ten minutes or so thinking about it and IT IS SO WEIRD and this was my train of thought: 

For one thing, it's scientifically inaccurate. Stars are much farther away than the moon. If you shot for the moon, and you didn't make it, the only thing you could land on would be the earth, if you were lucky, which is where we already are. Which seems like a waste of time. So technically people should say "Shoot for the stars—even if you miss you might land on the moon even though we've already been there but at least it's something." It doesn't have the same clichéd ring to it, but it's accurate.

And even if it was accurate, what is the moon supposed to represent in this saying? Is that really the highest thing we can attain? The moon? Shouldn't we be shooting for, like, the outer rim of the galaxy, or like, at least Pluto? Why shoot for something that's already been done before? That's kind of a mediocre standard for a saying that, it seems, is trying to convey the importance of going after your wildest dreams. "Shoot for the moon, Billy, and by that I mean maybe go to college and get a job someday. No one has ever done that before. And even if you don't make it, you'll land among the mechanics at our local garage." Inspiring. 

But then, if we said to shoot for a distant galaxy or supernova or something, though it would appropriately convey the grand scope this phrase is trying to invoke, it would actually still be a bad saying because going to those places is physically impossible. That's basically like telling someone without limbs to knit or telling me to tan. It's just not possible, so that isn't really inspiring either. But it has a nice ring to it. 

"Shoot for a tan—even if you don't get one, you may land among those with skin cancer." 

It doesn't really makes sense. So I guess that's why it's a popular motivational phrase, right?