asper- +

"To the stars through difficulties" or "To the stars in spite of difficulties."

The motto of the state of Kansas, USA and Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina, USA.

This motto suggests that we achieve great things only by encountering and overcoming adversities; it will be rough going, but we will make it.

1. To make uneven; to roughen.
2. To make rough, harsh, or uneven: "She spoke with a voice asperated by violent emotion."

The act of asperating or making or becoming rough.

1. Harshness of manner.
2. Something hard, or difficult, to endure.

1. Harshness or severity of manner or tone.
2. Something which is hard to bear because of its harshness or severity.
3. The roughness of a surface.
4. Physics area where surfaces touch; such as, a region of contact between two load-bearing flat surfaces.
5. Roughness or harshness; such as, of a surface, a sound, or a climate: "It is difficult to describe the asperity of northern winters."
6. A slight projection from a surface; a point or bump.
7. Harshness of manner; ill temper or irritability.

1. Irritate, annoy, rile, irk, anger, madden, incense, infuriate, enrage; rankle, aggravate, provoke, try the patience of; offend, ruffle, chafe, harass, vex, pique, bother; slang, bug, turn off: "Constant interruptions exasperated the speaker."
2. Antonyms: mollify, pacify, placate, appease, propitiate, conciliate; calm, assuage, tranquilize.
3. To make someone very angry or frustrated, often by repeatedly doing something annoying: "I was often exasperated with my parents about their constant bickering."
4. To make an unpleasant condition or feeling worse.
5. To make very angry or impatient; to annoy greatly.
6. Etymology: from Latin exasperatus, past participle of exasperare "roughen, irritate"; from ex-, "thoroughly" + asper, "rough".

1. Greatly annoyed and out of patience.
2. The increased gravity or intensity of a situation.

Someone who exasperates or inflames anger, enmity, or violence.

1. Extremely annoying or displeasing.
2. Making something worse.
3. Making someone very annoyed, usually when nothing can be done to solve a problem.

In an exasperating (extremely annoying) manner.

1. Actions which cause great irritation or even anger.
2. An exasperated feeling of annoyance.
3. An act or instance of provocation.
4. The state of being exasperated; irritation; extreme annoyance: "Her exasperation at being interrupted during the TV discussion was understandable."

Through adversity to the stars.

Motto of the Canadian Air Force.

Through the hardships of war.