Chris Hadfield believes that there has to be something else out there in the universe.
Speaking in a live interview in Dublin's Science Gallery with Chris Donoghue on Breakfast, he spoke about what it was like to do a spacewalk when blinded, re-entering the atmosphere at breakneck speed, conducting experiments in zero gravity and whether or not he believed in life on other planets.
When the spaceman was asked if he thought that we were alone in the Universe, he replied with a logical explanation that you couldn’t really dispute. Bringing his friend, Professor Brian Cox into the fold who had done the mathematical calculations of the possibility of life on other planets he said that it has to be possible.
“Every star has planets and the numbers are so huge that there are 80 billion earth like planets that we know of. To think that the only one that has developed life here is the height of self importance”
Hadfield is realistic about what is out there
“I think that there has got be life on other places in the universe, but I don’t think that they re sneaking around abducting farmers and putting circles in crops”.
With the possibility of space tourism quickly looming, Chris, who wanted to go into space from the age of nine said that he fully supported Richard Branson’s efforts to get the first commercial intergalactic tourists into space.
Speaking about Virgin boss’ efforts, Commander Hadfield seemed optimistic.
“I’m all for it. Space flight has always been commercial. The Lunar Lander was built by Grummen for profit. The space shuttle was built by Rockwell for profit. Even the space station is maintained for Boeing for profit. So it’s always been commercial; the big difference is that the customer has always been the Government and what Richard Branson is trying to do is make the customer a private citizen.”
“It’s still very expensive. But, it’s the cost of an expensive car to go to space. The cost of a Bentley basically and you can go to space. Lots of people can buy a Bentley.”
“I think Richard Branson is being the brave renegade who is finding a way to get private citizens for the first time to fly in space for something that isn’t a ridiculous amount of money”
“It’s very expensive but someone has to make that first bridge and I commend him for it. Hopefully they have great success, because it’s a very hard thing to do, but it should open the door. He’s doing it really well."
And of course the multi-talented spaceman was also reunited with The Chieftains for an "earthly" performance of Moondance following their intergalactic hit earlier in the year:
