Humanity's quest for knowledge, exploration, and understanding of life in the universe has given birth to a new era in our history, one that was bookmarked by a step through the vehicle of the three moons Luna 1, Luna 3, and Luna 5 all landing on or near our moon, Luna 2 being the first man made object to impact it.
As man realized his existence was not unique in a vast universe made up of billions of galaxies, he also learned that we were not alone.
Scientists theorized about the possibility of extra terrestrial life on other planets, over time they became less skeptical and came to accept the possibility of it actually existing. The process of accepting such a theory was also helped by several discoveries that indicated that certain elements of our planet did not form on earth but came from distant stars.
When the theory had reached a threshold point there was no doubt in the public's eye that life existed elsewhere in the universe. However, most also concluded that any planet outside our solar system was too far away to be discovered by our primitive methods.
The heavens remained uncharted.
This truth, that the faces of the stars were a mystery, applied to all but one star. Due to the unique placement of that star, the year 2046 became a major year in human history.
For the first time a human reached a planet that had gravitational properties similar to or identical with Earth. The planet in question, that had been named Kepler-10c by scientists, had a nearly identical period to our own. Its proximity to its parent star made it habitable.
The human in question was a New York City Police Chief named Ben Brown, an acquaintance of the man who had discovered the planet, Kyle Teague. Teague had directly predicted that the planet would have a life-cycle similar to Earth, and note worthy enough to be published in the same journal that had named the rest of the Kepler planets.
After the announcement Teague and Brown became close friends. It turned out that they had a common interest in astronomy and the possibility of extra terrestrials. Over the next several months they had put together a team that would travel to the planet and study it's conditions for signs of life.
Their journey would be one of the most dangerous, disaster prone, and unpopular in the history of mankind.
Teague and Brown had briefed all members of their mission, including the pilot, on the nature of the planet and the expected terrain. The crew was to infuse a series of probes into the atmosphere of the planet during their stay and relay back the data obtained. Because of the relatively short trip, one that took only ten hours to go from one extreme to the next, they reduced the amount of equipment they brought to a minimum, which included rope, hooks, a small drill, a mesh net, several days of food, and a camera. It also included a small construction kit that could be used to build a small shelter.
On their way to the planet they noticed several ice orbiting it. These were the remnants of an ancient planetary formation that had caused the formation of four other planets, which became the moons of Kepler-10c that had been designated Luna 1 through Luna 4. Data on these moons would not be needed in the trip so they were studied as the crew continued towards their destination.