text: The author also states in Paragraph 8, "Striving to meet the challenge presented by Venus has value, not only because of the insight to be gained on the planet itself, but also because human curiosity will likely lead us into many equally intimidating endeavors." The author put this in the passage to explain that if there was once life on Venus and whatever killed them could happen to us, so we need to explore Venus so we know what things to watch for so we don't end up like the forms of life possibly did on Venus.