Conclusion

Abstract

Odyssey: the title of Homer’s poem, which tells us of Ulysses’ perilous journey, has now come to describe any tale of travel filled with adventures and, ultimately, any succession of extraordinary events in the life of an individual or group. There is no doubt that this term can be applied without restriction to space venture. Like the Odyssey of the ancient poet, space is abound with gods, heroes and strangers, exotic shores, forbidding places and “Homeland-Earths” (Michel Serres), with brutal combats, Homeric challenges and unexpected alliances. Why should space have to now burden itself with the weight of ethical thinking? Should it not, on the contrary, be free of all constraints to allow humans, all men and all women, to benefit from it and fully embrace it, to find there the chance of success, even if they then return “full of knowledge and reason”, to live on good old planet Earth, their homeland, for “the rest of time” (Joachim du Bellay)?