Prof Brian Cox wants to go to space | Space

Prof Brian Cox says he is prepared to boldly go where no British TV presenter has gone before.

“I’ve not yet raised the funds, or convinced someone to give me a ticket,” he explains.

But if Elon Musk, the owner of US aerospace company SpaceX came calling, then “I’d say… brilliant, up we go!”, he adds.

Travelling to space is something we could all be doing in the future, according to Prof Cox, the UK’s best-known particle physicist.

Speaking ahead of his new BBC Two series about the Solar System, he says he wants the human race to go further.

He says advances being made at some commercial space companies means there is a possibility that we could become a multi-planetary and interstellar civilization.

One person who has beaten Prof Cox into space is billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman and the crew of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn.

Isaacman made history earlier this month by becoming the first private sector astronaut to walk in space. The US space agency Nasa said the mission represented “a giant leap forward” for the commercial space industry.

Prof Cox believes this combined approach – a collaboration between government agencies, like Nasa, and the private companies, like SpaceX – is a good thing. It is vital, he…