Elon Musk and everyone else are preparing for Mars

I didn’t travel 17 hours from Denmark to Guadalajara (Mexico) to drink tequila and lie on the beach. Instead, I had traversed the 9,600 kilometers (5,900 miles) to spend five days in a congress-center with an air-conditioning system that was a bit too cold for my regular outfit of jeans and a t-shirt. This should have come as no surprise to me; the International Astronautical Congress is an annual event that attracts mainly gray-haired men from aerospace companies and universities around the world who wear black business suits and ties. During the 5-day long event these men are busy swapping business cards, giving presentations and holding meetings – all of which demands an indoor climate substantially cooler than the Mexican outdoors.

I hadn’t brought any business cards; my purpose was to witness the Elon Musks keynote on making humans a multiplanetary species.