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Space exploration and development have been stimulated by a complex mixture of motivations, including scientific inquiry, intense competition between national governments and ideologies, and commercial profit. Underlying them has been a vision of the outward movement of humans from Earth, ultimately leading to permanent settlements in space or on other celestial bodies. In reality, however, only 27 people have traveled beyond Earth orbit, all of them Apollo astronauts during the primarily politically inspired race to the Moon. Twenty-four of these astronauts visited the Moon, 12 of them walked on its surface, and additional astronauts are scheduled to do so by ...(100 of 22189 words)