Colin Pillinger is pretty sure that E.T. is out there. “It would be very arrogant of us to believe that we are the pinnacle of evolution,” he says. Hydrogen and oxygen are abundant in the cosmos and so water, essential to life, should be plentiful. That’s a good start.

Beagle 2’s mission was to hunt for signs of life on Mars, and Pillinger is now talking to Nasa about sending a similar lander on a mission to the Moon. There are other planned missions to Mars including, within the next few decades, a manned voyage. If there is no evidence of life we shall have to look further afield. The problem is just how far we may have to look. The next nearest star system to us is more than 25 trillion miles away. So travelling to other planets that could support life isn’t going to happen “unless somebody invents a different form of propulsion”, says Pillinger.

Extraterrestrials will have to come to us or we will have to detect their presence using telescopes that can examine the atmosphere of planets for trace gases that indicate the presence of living organisms. It won’t happen quickly. “There are trillions of stars in trillions of galaxies, so you’ve got lots of places to choose from.”

Science: Big questions, small answers

With leading scientists, we set out to answer some of the fundamental questions of life, the universe and everything

BACKGROUND

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• Turning a blind eye to marvellous things

BACKGROUND

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• Encyclopedia of Life to be published online

• Branson calls for hydrogen filling stations

BACKGROUND

• Biofuels cannot save the planet

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• Forget biofuels — we need our daily bread

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