HARDtalk

In May this year a space craft the size of a pick up truck landed on the frozen northern plains of Mars. The Phoenix lander has provided the most detailed picture ever of the red planet's soil and ice. Some of the world's top scientists are trying to figure out what it means for the possibility of life on Mars. One of them is Dr Tom Pike, who heads the British contingent on the Phoenix mission. Shouldn't scientific resources really be focussed on the challenges facing all of us right now, here on planet earth? Dr Tom Pike talks to Stephen Sackur.