Spaceflight, space junk, and the hunt for life in space – meet the experts in this month’s episode of R Science

Summary: This month we’re going into outer space. We ask the experts if human space flight is worth the risk; find out what we can do about all the junk whizzing around in orbit; fast forward to find out how the milky way will die; and ask an astrobiologist if we’ll find life in space. First up, Martin Rees the Astronomer Royal, and Helen Sharman, Britain’s first ever astronaut ask if human space flight is worth the risk or if we should leave space exploration to robots. These clips are from an event we held at the Science Museum earlier this year. If you want to hear the rest just head over to our website. Next up we’re at the Summer Science Exhibition hearing about what a team from Surrey Space Centre are going to do about all the junk in space, and from Durham’s Galaxy Makers, whose massive computer simulation has modelled the birth and death of galaxies – including our corner of the universe, the Milky Way. Finally we catch up with Dr Zita Martins, astrobiologist. She tells us about how she started studying astrobiology and answers the crunch question: will we find life in space. Listen to this episode.