Elon Musk announced in September 2016 that SpaceX aims to have humans colonizing Mars by 2024. I confess, I was immediately excited. Having been raised on Star Trek, expanding the reach of human exploration has been part of my imagination for a long time. However, when I stopped to think about Musk’s announcement, my excitement dimmed. In particular, I thought about Hannah Arendt's remarks on the launch of the Sputnik satellite on October 4, 1957. In the prologue to the Human Condition, … [Read more...]