Space...

[Gwen]

What do we hope to achieve by visiting other planets?
More land to fight over?
More planets to take advantage of?

What do you hope to gain out of the ability to reach other star systems and planets?

[Dooby the potato god]

I think it'd just be bloody awesome to visit some other, habitable planet with weird and amazing environments.

Plus you could make awesome movies. :3

[workingatperfect]

Knowledge. Have you never sat outside at night and looked at the stars and been overwhelmed with curiosity for what's out there? If other people are out there? If WE can live out there? Sometimes I just sit and think about how huge our planet is, and that Earth is just a speck in our galaxy, and the galaxy is a small portion of the universe and can't help but wonder if the universe in just one of many.

So, that's why. Curiosity. We'll gain knowledge. And maybe there will be a use for it.

[Jess]

For knowledge. Quench our curiosity.

[Human]

We only have about one billion years left on earth. (before the sun becomes a red giant, it increases in luminosity and other factors mean that by a billion years there will be barely any oxygen or oceans left).
Because of this, we are virtually required to move off earth, if we last that long.
Probably within the next couple thousands of years because of disasters... we'll definitely be visiting comets for materials within this century I can bet.

[brandon1995]

We've used up a lot of the resources of Earth, plus with overpopulation and pollution, we better find another planet.

[MrDaniel2K13]

It's a difficult question to answer, no definitive answer has been given for "Why do we want to visit other planets", I think we want to visit other planets because it gives us a chance to realize if we are the only intelligent life forms.

[Anonimi]

Ways to get more power (as in electrical power) through fuel, and through knowledge, we may find stuff that will help is enormously with stuff.
also, if we don't exit this solar system we are all gonna die, either within 5 billion years, or sooner, through gamma ray bursts of super nova's(nowhere to be found, but when it happens, we are surely dead), comets, humans(some time soon probs), or the exploding of the sun (which happens in about 5-6 billion years) or other natural disasters, we will probably face a disaster that has the power to wipe out the whole of humanity within 50.000 years, colonizing the moon or mars won't be a bad idea...

We only have about one billion years left on earth. (before the sun becomes a red giant, it increases in luminosity and other factors mean that by a billion years there will be barely any oxygen or oceans left).
Because of this, we are virtually required to move off earth, if we last that long.
Probably within the next couple thousands of years because of disasters... we'll definitely be visiting comets for materials within this century I can bet.

before the sun is a red giant we have like 5 billion years, but yeah we better flee, oh and btw, the Andromeda galaxy is coming our direction, when it hits the milky way, we better find another galaxy....

Merged double post. -Gigablue

[Human]

before the sun is a red giant we have like 5 billion years, but yeah we better flee, oh and btw, the Andromeda galaxy is coming our direction, when it hits the milky way, we better find another galaxy....

the sun increases in luminosity before it's a red giant... in a billion years earth will be inhospitable. and the andromeda galaxy impacting the milky way will have almost no effect on us... the stars are so far apart, the chances of hitting each other are incredibly low. each star would be like a ping pong ball, separated by the atlantic ocean.

[Gigablue]

I think right now the main goal is knowledge. There is so much to learn by going to another planet and studying it. However, in the future, the focus will shift to colonization, as the earth want sustain humans forever.

[Sir Suomi]

Knowledge, and the fact that we're running out of just about everything, food, room, resources, and also we're screwing ourselves over by wrecking our planet, and although I love Earth, I think it would be for the best if we started removing ourselves from our planet, and started spreading ourselves out across the stars... And who knows what we will find out there? It does make me wonder every time I gaze up into the heavens.

[Cicero]

For knowledge. Quench our curiosity.

Quench a thirst that will never stop.

[Skyline]

Understanding, so our society can utilize knowledge gained from far away places to help fix and prevent problems here on Earth.

[Gwen]

Well just a general reply to all your questions:

The shortest estimated time we'll get to another star system is a bit over 1,000 years. And that's just 20 light years away. Anything we can even remotely inhabit is much further away. It's grim and humans going to the stars seems like the best way but it seems more likely we'll go extinct before we find somewhere new to live or figure out how to sustain ourselves in a ship. I doubt we could live long in space ships it doesn't seem possible to get enough food, water and other basic requirements and I'd go stir crazy just waiting.

But I had thought of something like the Eldar off Warhammer. They all live on Craftworlds we could build something resembling that. It'd support animals and planets from Earth to populate on other planets or the vessel.

[Silicate Wielder]

for most citizens of the world, we just want to be able to see the landscape of a foreign planet before us. but for scientists and astrophysicists its just so we have anther planet to live on just because we don't want people dying for our own mistakes, the Earth is becoming polluted and we have global warming, not to mention surface land is going to shrink. and... possibly wipe out all life on earth if water levels rise enough. (Thats no fun, unless you happen to have been born with a genetic mutation that gives you gills and lets you swim for up to years at a time without starting to rot from being in water too long. [Amazingly enough, it actually happens. You may want to get out of that hot tub when your hands get pruny])

[TheBigUnit]

In my opinion at first it will be for sheer exploration, the final frontier, adventure of adventures, and to gain knowlege and prestige,
kinda like "We went to the Moon not because it was easy, but because it was hard"

Years after when we can efficently master the travel, we will suck its resouces dry and open galatic businesses

[Taryn98]

Better knowledge and understanding of the universe.