The US, China and UAE launched unmanned missions to Mars last summer in the quest to discover whether the red planet was ever habitable - or could be in future.

In the week that the European Space Agency also launched a recruitment drive for the next generation of astronauts, what does the future of space exploration look like? And is it really worth it?

On this edition of the Sky News Daily podcast with Dermot Murnaghan, we are joined by Libby Jackson, human exploration manager at the UK Space Agency; Nicholas Booth, who co-authored the book The Search for Life on Mars and is a self-confessed Mars obsessive; and Alexander Martin, Sky’s technology reporter.

Daily podcast team:
Podcast producer - Annie Joyce
Podcast producer - Nicola Eyers
Podcast producer – Lauren Pinkney
Interviews producer - Tatiana Alderson
Archive - Simon Windsor
Archive - Rob Fellowes
Archive – Nelly Stefanova
Music - Steven Wheeler

Credits: NASA archive footage