The underlying purpose of searching space is to discover habitable places

In 2009, NASA launched the Kepler mission. Kepler was a space telescope. The mission was successful but, over time it developed mechanical problems and was reprogramed to perform a modified mission with a different configuration. The reprograming brought it a new name: K2. The purpose of NASA’s Kepler missions was to search for planetary bodies. In 2017, NASA released the final data of Kepler's primary mission. Its number of confirmed planetary finds was boosted to 2,335. The total count of potential planets was 4,034.

Some of the key reporting from other sources finds, including NASA missions:

• NASA estimates that there are at least 100 billion planets in the Milky Way galaxy (snippet from “How Many Planets are in the Milky Way?” published on Tuesday, September 29, 2020).
• Others estimate that the Milky Way galaxy might have anywhere between 100 to 200 billion planets (snippet from “How Many Planets are in the Milky Way?” published on Tuesday, September 29, 2020).
• The Milky Way galaxy contains 200 billion to 400 billion stars (snippet from “Flexi answers - How many solar systems are there in the Milky Way?” published on Tuesday, May 30, 2023).
• Assuming a significant proportion of these stars have planetary systems, it’s likely that there are hundreds of billions of solar systems in the Milky Way galaxy.

Description of the Milky Way galaxy

According to Wikipedia, the Milky Way galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy with an estimated diameter of 100,000 million light years spiraling outward and 1,000 light-years wide. Additionally, it has several smaller satellite galaxies bound to it, and is part of the Local Group of galaxies. These galaxies are a portion of the Virgo Supercluster. The Virgo Supercluster is a component of the Laniakea Supercluster.

Groups of galaxies are the smallest aggregates of galaxies but, the most common structures in the universe. They account for 50% of the galaxies in the local universe, and typically contain no more than 50 galaxies in a cluster.

The Milky Way is estimated to contain 100–400 billion stars and at least that number of planets. Our Solar System is located at a radius of about 27,000 light-years (8.3 kpc) from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of the Orion Arm. The Galactic Center is an intense radio source known as Sagittarius A, a supermassive black hole of 4.100 (± 0.034) million solar masses.

These estimates are based on current observations and simulations.

Searching for planets

With all the data compiled by NASA and other space agencies, the purpose of such research is ultimately to discover other planets. What is the current definition of a “Planet”? Worldatlas.com provides an excellent definition:

1. A planet is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.
2. A 'dwarf planet' is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, (c) has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.
3. All other objects, except satellites, orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as 'Small Solar System Bodies.'"

A question is then asked, how many planets are in the Milky Way? An article in Nineplanets.org answers the question: billions.

All of the planets in our solar system orbit around the Sun. Planets that orbit around other stars are called exoplanets. They are hidden by the bright glare of the stars they orbit. Additionally, because of their smaller size and extraordinary distances, exoplanets are very hard to distinguish with telescopes.

Exoplanets are found within other suns. Based on data, one of the closest exoplanet is Proxima Centauri b. It orbits the star Proxima Centauri, which is part of the Alpha Centauri star system, located in the constellation of Centaurus. It’s located approximately 4.2 light-years away. This makes Proxima Centauri b roughly 26 trillion miles (42 trillion kilometers) away from Earth.

To uphold the fundamental purpose for space travel of finding livable planetary bodies; there is one mandate: speed. The current capacity of rocket technology is unrealistic as a viable method for traveling in space.

Space flight technology

The current speed of rocket technology is 25,000 miles per hour. The Parker Solar probe, through its technological use of gravity, reached a speed of 430,000. Even with this, all of human technological effort has attained 0.000037279123279345 lightspeed.

When will space travel exploration become practical? To design a proper vehicle to fly in space, there can be no conflict from friction For a vehicle to travel near lightspeed, or reaching lightspeed, requires a vehicle using complete energy efficiency. Where can this be found?

All of human effort with current rocket launch technology has attained 0.000037279123279345 lightspeed.

What will it take to reach a fast enough speed essential for space travel? From the blogpost, Building for fast space travel: To design a proper vehicle to fly in space, there can be no conflict from friction For a vehicle to travel near lightspeed, or reaching lightspeed, requires a vehicle using complete energy efficiency. Where can this be found?

What will it take to reach a fast enough speed essential for space travel? It requires a different perspective when considering the question. Chemical explosions for propulsion are a technological embarrassment. Current rocket launch technology’s approach is “bigger bombs”. An explosion releases its energy in 360 degrees. The trajectory of a rocket is 1 degree. Even people with low math skills are able to figure out that 360 minus 1 equals 359. Rocket scientists have captured more than one degree of energy release, nonetheless, it still means chemical explosions as a method of propulsion are extremely inefficient.

How can the engineering intellect of mankind reach significant speed for space travel? 

• Step 1: stop using explosions to blast a can into space 
• Step 2: stop seeking propulsion
• Step 3: study gravity 
• Step 4: find people who have built devices and crafts that have the capacity to fly without being based on aeronautic principles 

New space flight technology

From the blogpost, Directions for new transportation: The significance of gravity regarding new transportation is fundamental to developing a brand-new mode of transportation. New modes of transportation require new methodologies. Society’s technological advances over the past 100 years necessitate the demand for efficient transportation. Both short-distance and long-distance transportation require innovative solutions. A reasonable pursuit towards discovering new methodologies in transportation innovation is by the manipulation of gravity.

With the components: manipulation of gravity, and momentum of spin, it’s theoretically plausible to produce an independent inertia field. Having a vehicle that has its own inertia field, this presents a new approach to space flight.

Once a new mode for space travel becomes viable, then comes building space ports. These space ports must be sustainable. In the blogpost, Non-Earth Urban Growth, it makes a point that one of the vital components to enhance an Earthlike environment is: dirt.

Conclusion

It’s impossible to explore space and expect to find a habitual exoplanet, without a viable vehicle technology that provides extremely fast space travel speeds.