Exploration is part of our DNA. When we look through our telescopes, we can only imagine the worlds spinning around other stars. What are they like? What would it be like to be there? Could we even get there? And how different would we be if we lived there?
Science fiction has tackled this issue for a long time, and there isn't any shortage of such stories. In fact, many of my best hours of reading has been striding through the sands of another world (John Carter of Mars springs immediately to mind). Having a story set on another world lends an air of credibility to the whole thing, in a different way than fantasy because fantasy is entirely made up while science fiction at least tries to come up with reasons and wherefores and whyfores--though that does tend to make the story about the setting and not the characters.
I'm especially fascinated by the recent mission to a comet shaped like a barbell. It's incredible to see the pictures sent back, and wonder how such an object came to be. There is so much we don't understand about our universe, and it seems that the more we learn the more questions we have. I hope it never ends, because I like to learn and want to continue learning forever.
Our desire to visit other worlds sparked one of the most famous lines in recent storytelling, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."
- M
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