This is a photo of the surface of Mars, somewhere near the polar region, taken just a few, short hours ago by Phoenix, which successfully negotiated the vast distance between us and its new home and landed softly on the surface of another world which, to us here on earth, is just a speck of light in the night sky. It’s mission – to boldly dig where no robot arm has dug before – looking for ice and other ingredients of life.

I want to thank Neutron News for not only bringing this landing to my attention but for also pointing out that I could watch the mission controllers live on NASA TV as this momentous event took place.

Anyone old enough to remember the heady days of the Friendship, Gemini and Apollo missions will also remember – here in the UK at least – the amazing coverage it all received on television. Patrick Moore, James Burke, Richard Strauss. How could anyone forget those first, faint, ghostly images from the surface of the Moon as Neil Armstrong jumped down from the last rung of the ladder and man took one more step in the endless exploration that started so long ago in the depths of Africa. It was exciting, compelling stuff and it spoke of a destiny to be fulfilled.

These days, a mission like Phoenix is but a footnote on the news. Turn away for a second and you’ve missed it. Yet unless we cause our own extinction in the near future, space is our destiny. It is as inevitable as the fact that one day – maybe millions of years, maybe not – our home planet will become unable to sustain life.

The exploration of our own solar system and then beyond requires rekindling in the public imagination. It requires more finance. More political will. And it requires more smart people with a vision. Our media should be splashing the success of missions like Phoenix over the front page of newspapers and special TV programming to keep the hope of those pioneers alive because this is our future and the next generation need to have their imagination and vision stirred into life.

I feel sure that if you can remember the TV series ‘Blake’s 7′ then you most probably have fond memories of it. It was, on balance, an interesting mix of adventurous television making on a very low budget. In fact, I well recall a comment made, I believe, by the producers that a single episode of ‘Blake’ had about the same budget as a ‘Star Trek’ coffee break.

So let’s see. What do I remember. I recall flimsy sets and even flimsier acting; grandiose title music; perhaps one of the first series where the writers felt free to kill off main characters; at least one whole series of ‘Blake’s 7′ with no Blake, or, for that matter, only 6 of them (I believe); the irascible ORAC; Servalan (who could forget her or her haircut?) and, of course, Avon – to mention just a few.

I remember being struck at the time that this disparate group of so-called ‘freedom fighters’ throwing stones at the evil ‘Federation’ seemed far more interested in treachery and deceit towards their fellow travellers than they did about liberating the galaxy. But it was good fun even if it seemed to totally lose it’s way after the first series.

But Blake fans everywhere will either be thrilled or appalled at the news that Sky television is planning to remake them. To quote:

The satellite channel has given the green light for the development of two 60-minute scripts for a “potential event series”.

Yes – that really does say “potential event series”. Sounds like ‘Federation Speak’ to me.

(If you happen to be a true ‘Blake’s 7′ fan then you must check out this site from Steven Locke where he appears to have re-created just about every Blake aspect in Lego. Some people really ought to get out more).

I was skimming the BBC news website this lunchtime when a headline caught my eye. The average home, it said, owns 4.7 televisions. On reading the item it isn’t about television ownership at all – it’s an interesting piece about the links between consumerism, social attitudes and the new “therapy culture” which promotes simple misery to depression and mental ill-health.

If I am supposed to feel miserable because instead of 4.7 televisions in my house I have just the one then I am obviously missing something. To be honest, I sometimes feel miserable because I’ve got one at all. If you sit in front of the bloody thing on an average evening, switch on Sky and browse through the programme guide, the feeling of misery gets more intense with each passing page. It’s not just because absolutely none of it is worth wasting my time on. It’s more that as a so-called civilized society we have become so culturally bankrupt. The vapid output dreamed up, no doubt, by the vacuous legion of first generation media studies graduates is so stunningly awful, unengaging, uninspired and dumbed down that I am surprised the whole country isn’t on Prozac. Or perhaps it is and I didn’t notice. Prozac just might make ‘Deal Or No Deal’ bearable.

I recall, a long time ago, reading that the average household owns just 11 books. At the time we owned around a couple of thousand which equated to a large village full of houses where no books would be found at all to maintain the balance. Our single television suggests that the guy down the road must have at least 8.

I am beginning to think there is no hope.

I’d like to make it clear from the start that I bought my Audi way before they started using Simone White’s ‘The Beep Beep Song’ to plug their wares. In any case, I don’t believe I am that easily swayed by advertising. On the rare occasion that I actually watch TV the sound usually gets muted during the ads and most of the time I watch recorded programming and can fast forward.

But I am somewhat intrigued by car advertising starting to use more obscure and interesting music. The first time I saw the Saab ad using Nina Kinert’s ‘Through Your Eyes’ I immediately wanted more. Not more Saab of course but more Kinert. But then along came Audi with ‘Beep Beep’ and I was stricken.

There are voices and indeed, accents, that one hears that send tingles down the spine. I recall the first time I heard Joni Mitchell’s debut album ‘Song for a Seagull’ having this effect and down the years there have been the odd songs combined with the right singers that somehow seriously target the pleasure centre of the brain. Katie Melua, for example, is patchy and some of her material is just plain awful, but if I am playing the track ‘Piece by Piece’ in the car I almost need to pull over and stop for a while to get over it.

So it is with Simone White. Hawaiian born White has, for me, one of those voices, accents and delivery that just make the hairs on my arms stand up and tingle and my eyes water. If her voice is the last thing I hear when I am on my deathbed then I may die a happy man.

Whilst the unnecessary death of anyone, anywhere, is a tragedy, the four news workers who died when their helicopters collided over Phoenix, Arizona were a part of a more serious tragedy than many, which is the state and quality of American news coverage.

Anyone who habitually watches news coverage in Europe – or like me was weaned on the BBC and ITN – can remember that moment when they first sat in a hotel room in the USA and watched one of the network news programmes. If they were like me their jaws would have been sagging in amazement and they would have been slowly shaking their head in disbelief.

Don’t get me wrong. I am aware that news broadcasting in England has also taken a qualitative dive in recent years. But much of that, I believe, was caused by the arrival of Sky News and Mr. Murdoch. At the same time, US news broadcasting dived even lower when the same organisation launched Fox.

That being said, US news has always, as far as I can remember, been far more sensationalist and more moralistic and preachy than it has about calmly reporting world, national and local events. When it really matters it can be just as good as anywhere else – I watched much of the US reporting on Hurricane Katrina for example and much of it was admirable. But they also spend a lot of coverage on events that don’t matter. The four people who tragically died were covering nothing more important than a police car chase. And for this, there were no fewer than five news helicopters overhead. I can only assume that they all hoped to sell their footage later to be compiled into one of those dreary reality TV cop shows that litter the TV schedules on satellite and cable.

It is, in fact, a wonder that such a collision has never happened before.