Colin wanted to meet me in Aldsworth. I’d never heard of it but it was only about five miles away, between where I got married and where the reception was. Colin was the guy behind the British Mars shot a few years back — Colin Pillinger, the man who, given half a chance, could do for science what Damien Hirst has done for art: popularise, subvert and sophisticate at a stroke. You may remember his spacecraft Beagle 2 crash-landed on Mars on Christmas Day 2003.
Space science is the great adventure of the 21st century. The first man on Mars has been born, no doubt about it. Colin knows that. I think he also knows that there is, or has been, life on the planet already. ‘Did you know they’ve just found water?’ he said, as we were ordering lunch.
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