To see what we could find. Life, for example. Many people who are experts in the subject think a good chance of finding extraterrestrial life would be on Europa, with it's subsurface ocean. There are two other icy moon as well. Where there's water, there is a better chance of finding life than where there is not. The JIMO program I am involved with involves the launching of an unmanned mission to visit these three icy moons. The craft has the capability of going into orbit around a moon, making observations for a while, then leaving it and going to another moon. This is a capability wholly new for outer planet missions. It's star trek-type stuff.
But, in the end, its the nature of man and his curiosity, the need to explore and find out new things, that lies at the heart of the drive to do these things. I hope we don't lose that, because if we do we will have lost a vital component of the human spirit, something that has been with us since the first person among early man threw a log in a river and hopped on for the ride. Where that journey will take us, I don't know, but, if we can manage to survive, I think it's end will be far, far away.
If you had said Europa it would have made more sense to me. I was focused on Jupiter as a target, not a system.
Thanks again,