Fifty years ago we landed on the moon and imagined that in 2001 we would be travelling vast distances through space. But the fantasy died and we went nowhere. Now a new age of space exploration is underway - this one driven by companies, billionaires and new players like China and India.
Is it an essential trait of being human to reach out into the unknown? Should we applaud a return to grand adventures with the potential to replenish the planet's depleted resources from the Moon, Mars and beyond? Or should we give up on our Space Odysseys and recognise that the scale of space leave us trapped amid the barren planets of our own solar system?
Astronomer Royal Martin Rees, philosopher and author of Nobody Owns the Moon Tony Milligan and Senior Strategist for Airbus Elizabeth Seward reach out to the cosmos.
In partnership with Airbus