The analogy breaks down, however, as exploring Earth is exploring within environments for which we're adapted. And in general exploration is for territory and the resources therein. Much human exploration has been motivated by greed. Space, however, it totally empty (bar a few protons here & there, and the CMB residue). There's nothing there, and no matter which direction you point yourself toward and no matter how long you travel, there's still nothing there. So why would anyone want to go literally nowhere, for years or decades? The inside of a tin can gets really old, really quickly. And that would be, in fact, where the people would be. Nowhere, inside a tin can. Not really very appealing, and no sense of adventure anywhere.