star trek - Was the original Enterprise truly the first sci-fi spaceship designed purely for exploration?

In this video, the astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson chooses the Enterprise over the Millenium Falcon.

One reason he gives is that the Enterprise is the first sci-fi ship designed purely for exploration, rather than going from A to B:

"The Enterprise... is the first ever ship represented in story-telling that was not designed to go from one place to another. It was only designed to explore."

Is that true?

Answer

No, not really.

1924 - Psycho-ship was the vehicle in Goncharov's book "Psycho-Ship" ("Психо-машина") - part of "Interstellar Traveller" dilogy. It was designed for exploration and moved using psychic energy.

1956 - Passing the torch temporarily (pun intended) to English speaking works, Heinlein's "Time for the Stars" has torchships, explicitly designed for exploration.

1957 - Efremov's "Andromeda Nebula" ("Тума́нность Андроме́ды") has starship "Tantra" ("Тантра") which was built for exploration. As well as several other exploration-only ships.

1958 - to continue on Efremov streak, "Cor Serpentis" ("Сердце Змеи") has "Tellur" exploration ship ("Теллур")

1962 - moving from classics to classics, A&B Strugatskie (the Strugatsky brothers) have several exploration spaceships in "Полдень, XXII век" ("Noon, 22d century"), including "Taymyr" ("Таймыр").

_{Apropos nothing, that 1962 book has a made-up mind-recording cutting edge technology named "Kasparo-Karpov" method.}

Comments

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