What do you think it's like out there? I mean like on other planets far away from what we know of the planets in our solar system (like Venus is highly acidic, Mars is barren and dusty, the Moon is all Crator'y, and Jupitor is gas.) If we came across an uncharted system never before seen this close with unaided eyes, would you want to land and set-up a colony on something familiar, or totally alien to what we've seen before?
Personally, I'd go for an ocean world with cool, erratic waves, or something with freak geometric outcroppings of precious metals.
God, another good one. It depends, I guess? I think there is limitless possibility, and I would like to see many a world completely alien to our own understanding, things that make us rethink our understanding of life, or physics, or geometry, and I would love to find out how we would have to adapt to live on such worlds, but I also think finding somewhere that has some trappings of home would be nice on longer exploration journeys, somewhere safe to use as a home base as we try to discover what else is out there for us.
I hesitate using settle or colonies just because I think that runs the risk of lapsing into the very tendencies that have so harmed this world, but I love the idea of trying to survive in strange new worlds.
Thank you! This was a very good ask, and food for thought.