We've scoured every point on the surface of the Earth and put footprints on the moon. Our robot spacecraft have visited every planet in the solar system. Climbers produce traffic jams on Mount Everest and the deepest point in the ocean is a playground for a Hollywood director.

It's getting harder to find new places to explore, and new quests for the unknown. Why, then, does humanity seem so reluctant to support one of the last great quests we have left?

The last frontier ... so why does humanity seem so reluctantant to support one of the last great quests we have left? Credit:NASA/Reuters

We've wondered if we are alone in the universe for eons. Our ancestors, like us, have gazed at the stars and wondered at what lies out there. For a long time, there was no way to know. We eventually worked out that the stars were distant suns, but we couldn't see much else. Now we know of more planets outside our solar system than in our system. It won't be long before we can count a thousand of them. Some are truly weird, like huge balls of molten rock and metal in orbits close to their sun. Or behold the monster planets that make huge Jupiter look wimpy.

We've even found some worlds that aren't too far from their suns, but aren't too close. They also seem to be not too big, not too small. They could be much like our own home planet. They could be inhabited, too.