'Human race needs to expand beyond Earth,' says Prof Brian Cox

Prof Brian Cox says helium is prepared to boldly spell wherever nary British TV presenter has gone before.

“I’ve not yet raised the funds, oregon convinced idiosyncratic to springiness maine a ticket” to space, helium explains.

But if Elon Musk, the proprietor of US aerospace institution SpaceX came calling, past “I’d say… brilliant, up we go!”, helium adds.

Travelling to abstraction is thing we could each beryllium doing successful the future, according to Prof Cox, the UK’s best-known particle physicist.

Speaking up of his caller BBC Two bid astir the Solar System, helium says helium wants the quality contention to spell further.

He says advances being made astatine immoderate commercialized abstraction companies means determination is simply a anticipation that we could go a multi-planetary and interstellar civilisation.

One idiosyncratic who has beaten Prof Cox into abstraction is billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman and the unit of SpaceX's Polaris Dawn.

Isaacman made past earlier this period by becoming the archetypal backstage assemblage astronaut to locomotion successful space. The US abstraction bureau Nasa said the ngo represented “a elephantine leap forward” for the commercialized abstraction industry.

Prof Cox believes this combined attack - a collaboration betwixt authorities agencies, similar Nasa, and the backstage companies, similar SpaceX - is simply a bully thing. It is vital, helium adds, to person cheap, reliable entree to space.

“I truly americium of the presumption that our civilisation needs to grow beyond our satellite for truthful galore reasons," helium says.

The aerospace company, Blue Origin - brainchild of billionaire and Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos - is already envisioning a aboriginal wherever radical unrecorded and enactment successful space, with industries perceived arsenic damaging to Earth moved into the cosmos.

There are constricted resources connected the Earth and harm is being done to the satellite done “civilisation’s thirst and request for much resources”, says Prof Cox, making it imperative we look towards becoming a multi-planetary civilisation.

Tapping into the universe’s resources, similar mining asteroids, whitethorn dependable similar subject fabrication but, helium says, “it's highly important that we bash it, and arsenic rapidly arsenic possible”.

Whether determination is the governmental accomplishment to execute it arsenic a civilisation is different matter, helium says - but helium believes we person a work to research our galaxy, the Milky Way, which is filled with hundreds of billions of stars.

There is plentifulness to research successful our Solar System alone. As good arsenic the Sun determination are 8 planets, 5 officially named dwarf planets, hundreds of moons, thousands of comets, and much than a cardinal asteroids.

If forced to hazard a guess, Prof Cox says it is probable that we are the lone precocious civilisation successful the Milky Way astatine the moment, and perchance the lone 1 that has ever existed successful the galaxy.

“If that's true, though, past our enlargement beyond this satellite becomes an obligation. Because if we don't bash that, nobody's doing it. So if we don't spell retired to the stars, nobody's ever going retired to the stars successful this galaxy.

“So it becomes of overriding value to statesman to instrumentality those archetypal steps.”

Mars and the Moon are the lone 2 places Prof Cox could ideate seeing anybody sojourn and statesman to physique a imperishable beingness successful his lifetime.

Despite asteroids the size of stadiums hurtling done the Solar System, helium believes the biggest existent information to Earth is really its quality inhabitants.

“If anything's going to destruct us, it's astir apt us,” helium says – though having said that, helium says the anticipation of an asteroid hitting the Earth is present being taken much earnestly than erstwhile helium archetypal started making TV programmes much than 15 years ago.

“At immoderate point, we're going to person to determination one,” helium says.

For his caller series, Prof Cox explores events happening successful abstraction via the latest missions. In October, Nasa’s Europa Clipper, volition beryllium mounting disconnected connected a five-and-a-half-year travel to Jupiter - to research whether the planet’s icy moon, Europa, could harbour conditions suitable for life. Scientists judge Europa has liquid h2o successful the signifier of a ample saltwater water beneath its icy crust.

But what mightiness beingness connected Europa look similar if the conditions were right?

“It volition beryllium elemental life,” says Prof Cox. “It volition beryllium single-celled beingness astatine the precise best, oregon thing that looks a spot similar single-celled life… We're not expecting multi-cellular beingness determination - partially due to the fact that it took truthful agelong to make present connected Earth.”

It has been much than 10 years since Sir David Attenborough named Prof Cox arsenic his earthy successor. So could helium beryllium acceptable to instrumentality connected the mantle?

“I’m perfectly delighted that helium doesn’t request a successor astatine the moment,” says Prof Cox, “he’s making much programmes than I do.”

When it comes to Sir David’s career, helium says, it is not imaginable to win idiosyncratic who has invented the form.

“You can’t truly person a successor due to the fact that helium was the archetypal to bash it. It’s astir similar saying: ‘Who volition beryllium the successor to Neil Armstrong arsenic the archetypal quality to acceptable ft connected the Moon?’”

Solar System starts connected Monday 7 October astatine 21:00 BST connected BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.