Can we become a multiplanetary species? There have been several spectacular announcements along these lines recently. Both SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have unveiled ambitious plans and tested rockets. Now aerospace multinational Boeing has ramped up its plans to get to Mars. What we're doing is more than just becoming multiplanetary, however — we are intervening in human evolution. In short, we are accelerating our own speciation.
Some might look at what we're doing to the Earth and suggest that the human "infection" shouldn't be allowed to spread in the cosmos. Others, and it's the majority view, held by people such as the physicist Stephen Hawking, say it's the only way to ensure the long-term survival of our species. Whichever view you subscribe to, there is a new space race in operation.
Musk and Bezos are developing rockets — the Falcon Heavy and Blue Origin, respectively — to transport people to Mars. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg announced that he wants his company to be the first to get to the red planet. He has a contract with NASA to transport U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station, as has Musk. But Muilenburg is very serious about Mars. "I'm convinced that the first person to step foot on Mars will arrive there riding on a Boeing rocket," he said in Chicago last week.