For as long as I can remember, I've had a fascination (bordering on obsession) with space, space travel and what lies beyond the bounds of Earth. Maybe it's just the science fiction nerd in me, or maybe it's part of my liberal mindset, but space exploration is something I find to be extremely important for the future of humanity and maybe even the planet. Not only have I considered astronomy as a second major, but this is actually something I think about on a near daily basis and has actually brought me to tears on more than one occasion. (That's not even hyperbole. My significant other witnessed it when we watched a Markiplier video together.)

It's no secret that Earth is in rough shape, and that it's likely in rough shape because of us. Because of humanity. Granted, there are a select few who would deny this idea, but it's the truth. We have a very small window of time to slow planetary heating before it's a lost cause. And then, of course, there's a possibility we won't slow it in time, which is a grim, but rather likely possibility.

In such a case, humanity can't exactly stay here and struggle forever (think "Interstellar"). And therein lies the most important aspect of space exploration to me: survival. If we fail to save the planet, we need to have a second option for humanity. One could argue that we have Mars as a possible alternative, but the cut funding to NASA in recent years has been making plans for that trip frustrating, at best, and too far away to matter, at worst. But the fact remains that we very well may need to find a new home sooner rather than later.

And funding, at least for the United States, is the biggest obstacle right now. NASA has more or less been put on the back burner by the U.S. government, which is why we've stopped making Moon visits and why our other interplanetary progress has slowed exponentially. After the space race during the Cold War was won, space travel lost importance to government officials, which is truly disheartening when we may need that funding now more than ever.

So maybe we'll have to rely on other countries to save us if the United States is unwilling. Plenty of other countries still have active space programs, and others (including Ethiopia) are creating new space programs all the time. Which means things aren't hopeless. Instead, it just means that NASA may not be leading the way, which is a little hard to wrap my head around, but also isn't their fault in the least.

Admittedly, I have a lot of frustrations with the government, but the dropped NASA funding is near the top of my list. Considering our current environmental predicament is a shared fault of government and industry, I feel they should be conscious of the matters at hand.

But let's not dwell on the darker matters, here. Instead, space exploration offers limitless exciting possibilities for humanity. For starters, we could find new sources of resources that we're rapidly running out of on Earth. Beyond that, it's quite simply the route to someplace new, someplace exciting which is what drove humanity centuries ago as we "discovered" different cultures and continents. By proxy, then, it pushes our advancement as a species and society. And I think we can all agree that's a wonderful thing.

Most importantly, searching for new worlds and territory in the name of Earth is quite possibly the swiftest route to human unity. If we quit arguing over land and other inconsequential things on Earth and instead look for new worlds in the interest of all of us, I believe it would help to lessen many of the international conflicts we face today. (That's an opinion. You don't have to agree with that.)

Space travel isn't something out of science fiction or fantasy. We've already done it. We just recently had a satellite leave our solar system for the first time, and that's truly amazing. It offers so many possibilities for humanity, so many new adventures and roads to growth. There is truly no more exciting prospect out there than interstellar travel.