re: The Moon
Mentioning the Moon's difference from Earth got me to thinking. What if the moon had been different than it is, and more like Earth. How would it have affected us by seeing a planet with clouds and oceans, and life? Would it have inspired us more to go see what was there? Assuming of course it would not have changed the evolution of life on earth and intelligent humans had evolved as we did. Undoubtedly though things would have been much different and evolution would have gone on a very different path. Perhaps intelligent life may not have evolved at all, or maybe it would have evolved much sooner. We can never know.