Is there any comparison of outer space exploration with the voyage of Columbus?
I don’t think so. Columbus had only one thing in mind, to find a quicker route to the Far East to open a new trade route for spice exportation. He wasn’t looking for new knowledge, and he was clueless about the geography of the Earth although he knew it was round. Modern space exploration is purely involved in collecting new knowledge about our environment in the solar system. We know the ‘geography’ of the solar system rather perfectly so there are no mysteries about where the ‘major land masses’ are located. As for colonization, Columbus had no interest in colonizing the New World, just as we have no real commitment to colonizing the Moon, Mars or elsewhere, science fiction literature not withstanding. I think the better comparisons are with the Lewis and Clark expedition, or the expeditions by Stanly and Livingston into the depths of Africa. Space exploration is all about seeing what is out there, finding the ‘source of the Nile’ and seeing what resources might be useful to humankin
