Astronaut Chris Hadfield says aliens exist however we cannot meet for ages they usually’ll be no banter
ET really might be out there, but it could take us millions of years to find him – and it may be an uncomfortable journey. And if we do hook up with an alien he may have all the banter of “blue-green algae”.
But it will be well worth it to experience an “environment of tremendous wonder,” better than anything in “your wildest dreams”.
That’s according to top astronaut Chris Hadfield…and he should know. He spoke exclusively to Daily Star Chief Reporter Jerry Lawton ahead of his upcoming UK tour…
He’s the interstellar hero who once serenaded the world with David Bowie’s Space Oddity while orbiting the Earth.
Canadian Chris Hadfield, whose family hails from Yorkshire, has flown two Space Shuttle missions and a third in a primitive Russian Soyuz craft the size of two VW Beetles.
The former International Space Station commander, who will next year embark on a UK speaking tour about the future of exploration, reckons alien life must exist out there somewhere. However – he tells the Daily Star – he is not convinced by claims aliens have visited Earth.
He says whistleblowers who insist the US Government has retrieved alien bodies from crashed UFOs have failed to produce any “real evidence.” And Donald Trump ’s newly released X-Files have so far just raised more questions than answers.
Chris, 66, says mankind’s “best telescopes” have proved “every single star has at least one planet,” allowing boffins to estimate how many there are in the Universe.
“The number is huge,” he adds. “It’s essentially infinite. We know for sure there’s life on Earth. And because of the fossil record we know life has been on Earth for four billion years.
“If we know for sure that life can exist and once it takes hold it endures then it would be incredibly self-centred and arrogant and largely ignorant to think that couldn’t happen anywhere else.
“I’m confident that there is life in other places in the Universe. But it might just be blue-green algae like it was on Earth for the first couple of billion years.
“Intelligent life seems pretty rare. I am equally confident that we haven’t found any evidence yet. That’s why we’re drilling on Mars right now. We’re looking for fossils.
“It’s why we have a mission going to Europa, because it’s a waterworld and one of the moons of Jupiter that has more water than Earth. So yes, we’re looking.”
Chris is now an adviser on NASA’s Artemis III mission to put mankind back on the Moon, for the first time since 1972. He believes we may have to travel to the furthest reaches of the Universe to find aliens – and it could take generations.
But he urges folk not to get frustrated at the six-decade wait since US astronaut Gene Cernan last set foot on the Moon.
“It’s that time in history where we are transitioning from wonder to early exploration to human settlement,” he says.
“What has always limited us is our technology. As the technology gets better our opportunities become broader. And the Moon is now, with the big recent advancements in technology, much more accessible.
“It takes a while.
“And it takes work and it takes changing circumstances. And that’s all that’s been going on.
“We need to explore. It’s fundamental to human nature. The Moon is just part of that.
“It’s a really exciting time to be part of it all.”
Chris believes folk will be building an outpost on the Moon by 2030, thanks to the competition fuelled by the space race between the US and China. And “within the next few years,” people will start to live there.
After that, he adds, mankind will set its sights on Mars.
“Mars is a great inspirational thought and eventually we will have people there.
“We already have robots there. We even have a helicopter there. And there are a lot of things in planning right now like a sky fall of little prospectors and explorers.
“But we need to invent things. We are somewhere back in the 1850 stage of Mars.
“We know it’s there and we know there’s huge untapped resources and unlimited amounts of water and atmosphere.
“It’s no Eden but it’s also a much more hospitable place than the Moon. But it’s still a long way away. It is just going to be way harder and take longer than most people would want.”
Chris has wanted to be an astronaut since the age of 10, when he watched the adventures of Captain James T Kirk – played by fellow Canadian William Shatner – in TV series Star Trek.
“I’ve got to know Bill Shatner,” he adds. “He and I have had some adventures together and done documentary stuff together. That’s a real delight.”
“The beauty of something like Star Trek is it is so much wildly bigger than your own actual life that it gives you permission to dream.”
- Tickets are now on sale for Chris Hadfield’s 2027 speaking tour of the UK and Ireland. Head to www.fane.co.uk/chris-hadfield for more information.
