I want to beleive

UFO's don't exist. Or rather they do, but only in the sense that hey are Unidentified Flying Objects rather than little green men visiting from outer space. UFO's obvioulsy do exist, but only because we can't identify them. Once we do they are simple aircraft weather balloons or chinese lanterns, or whatever we identify them as. Stand on a motorway bridge and try to identify the cars going by. In the sea of Nissans, Toyotas, Fords, Vauxhalls and Citroens there will undoubtedly be something you can't identify. The latest Kia, or a Chrysler. This of course does not mean that Kias don't exist, of course they do, it just means you can't identify it. You can describe it as some strange car, but only someone in the know can tell you which car it is.  But just because you can't identify it doesn't mean you doubt the existence of cars, right? Same with UFO's. And when you see something really odd like a Bristol, an Alvis or a Bugatti, it blows you mind. But it's still only a car.

Whilst I would like to believe that aliens from other solar systems are visiting, evidence strongly suggests otherwise, as proven by recent events. As I type, cosmonauts are attempting to fix a leak in the ammonia filled cooling system that protects the solar electric supply on the space station. This we are being told is damage caused by a meteor strike. We are not talking about  huge ball of flaming rock either, the damage could have been caused by something as small as a pin head. A minute piece of space debris travelling at speed could, at any time, pierce the shell of the space station damaging it and potentially killing all those on board. This of course means that interstellar travel would be highly dangerous, and arguably impossible. The space station orbits the earth at just a few hundred miles up. Cosmically speaking this is just outside the front door. And stepping out the door has been enough to take major damage. So, if we were to travel across our own solar system, the equivalent of strolling around our front garden, the odds of being hit increase dramatically. And consider this - we are simply strolling. Or possibly, because we are mere infants in this space exploration lark, merely crawling on all fours. Any aliens visiting from other galaxies would have to be travelling at tremendous speeds to cross the interstellar distances involved within their own lifespans, so their craft must surely be like pepperpots within a few streets on the cosmic scale. It just couldn't be done.

Consider the situation with the volcanic ash cloud a year or so back. They reckoned that an aircraft entering the ash cloud at cruise speed of around 300 mph would be stripped of it's paintwork in no time, and the engines would fail as ash glassified in the inlets. Travelling through the depths of space with all manner of flotsam, jetsam and detritus surely the same applies? And no self respecting alien is going to turn up on a strange new planet with tarnished paintwork and a knackered engine when the nearest starship repair centre is several thousand light years away. They wouldn't be seen dead in it - although naturally they would if it had been struck by meteors.

I have been having doubts about whether we ever even landed on Mars ever since I saw a documentary that pointed out several inconsistencies in the film footage, but now this new understanding convinces me. No spacecraft we can conceive could make the journey without risk of being bombarded by tiny little meteorites that would destroy it. Another factor that convinces me is that we are told that Apollo rockets used less computing power than a pocket calculator. Well my home PC is far more advanced than the 1960's computer technology, but it crashes with monotonous frequency, and to be honest I wouldn't trust it to speak my weight, never mind navigate to the moon and back. The Americans must have faked the whole thing to convince the Russians they had superior technology, thus securing world peace - of a sort.

And yet..... I still want to believe that life exists outside our little blue and green globe. If it doesn't then the rest of the universe makes no sense - what is it there for? Aliens must have superior technology to protect their spacecraft with some sort of anti gravity meteor proof shield  to allow them to travel cross the universe freely. And when we, a supposedly intelligent life form, still buries it's rubbish in a hole in the ground, makes TV documentaries about the most inadequate members of society for it's own entertainment and burns oil in little explosions to make chariots go around there is no hope at all for the future, unless we gain outside help, or evolve into something better quickly.

So, here's my theory. Life does exist on other planets, they have visited here and they are guiding us and ready to save us from ourselves. They may have already made contact, and that is why the familiar face of the alien grey is slowly being drip fed into popular sci-fi culture, to prepare us for the official announcement. They are almost certainly pointing us towards technological advancements. Lets' face it, we have had thousands of years of evolution in which we have achieved the wheel and fire, and very little else - agriculture and rudimentary medicine and music perhaps. Then within just a couple of centuries we come up with the steam engine, internal combustion, electricity, computers, microwave ovens, X rays, chips, DVD players space travel, Ryan Air, telephone, television, rock and roll and the internet. And lets be honest we just don't have the intellect for any of that. Take away electricity and within a month we would all be on the same level as monkeys again, or at best plunged back into the dark ages. Most of the Jeremy Kyle audience are still there, proof if need be that man has not evolved to the point of flying to the moon. No, there is more going on than we are aware of, and I for one will be watching the night skies more closely from now on.

I want to believe.