So, space exploration.
In reality, it's mostly done by robots. But that's no fun, so in fiction we tend to have starships. Will we?
It's an open question. We have yet to send a true interstellar probe. The Voyagers have entered interstellar space, but it took them a long time to get there and they certainly aren't expected to reach another solar system.
The Interstellar Probe concept mission has been presented to NASA, but it has a major downside: It will take at least 15 years to get to its planned distance of 200 AU. That's outside the solar system, but it's not...ya know.
Not actually going anywhere. The point of the mission would be to study the heliosphere, which doesn't work the way we thought it did. We have a much more solid bow wave than we thought, which may protect our solar system (and others) from higher levels of radiation in true interstellar space.
We're a long way from creating a probe that can go to Proxima Centauri, unless we crack FTL any time soon. Given FTL may or may not be possible...
But for science fiction, we want human exploration. In Transpecial and Araña, the complicated flow patterns in hyperspace are easier for an organic mind to handle than an AI, which makes human explorers more necessary. This is unlikely to actually be true (in fact, it's probably more likely that interstellar ships will be robots that fly themselves. Even the ones carrying humans). It's just a lot less fun that way.
I'll talk about FTL and possibilities tomorrow, but right now I'm still daydreaming of some drive that will get a probe to another system within my own lifespan. And I'm not getting any younger...
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