Space archeologist Alice Gorman asks — is space travel enhancing what we value about humanity? For answers, she turns to the 20th-century luminaries philosopher Hannah Arendt, writer Aldous Huxley, theologian Paul Tillich, nuclear scientist Harrison Brown, and historian Herbert J. Muller, who were asked to ponder if humanity’s conquest of space increased or diminished our stature after the launch of the first satellite Sputnik in 1963. Sixty years on, the question remains. If you go ask Alice, it likely depends on what values we choose to prioritise in this new era of interplanetary expansion.