Travel: Candid caller

CALLING all occupants of interplanetary, most extraordinary craft: are you observing our Earth and, in the words of the Carpenters' hit, would you like to make a contact with us, baby? Today Sheffield plays host to the annual conference of the Independent UFO Network, for down-to-earth discussions about real space invaders. This week the Candid Caller asked: do you think there is anybody out there? And would you like to travel in space?

Mr John Moon of Sheffield: 'I think it's only a matter of time before aliens make contact with Earth - though it probably won't happen in my lifetime. I'm 65.

'When they do communicate with us, I'm sure we'll have plenty to learn from them. I'd like to take a trip in space and look back to see Earth as a tiny dot.'

Mrs Rosemary Starr of Birmingham: 'There are UFOs but only in the movies. Despite years of searching, we still haven't found any proof that anything exists outside our planet.

'I would hate travelling in space - flying in a plane is bad enough.'

Mr Nick Armstrong of Cardiff: 'I'd have thought there must be something out there, although we've yet to make contact.

'I'd like to take a trip to Jupiter. It would be something to tell the grandchildren in years to come.'

Mrs Gillian Spacey of Liverpool: 'If there was anything trying to contact us from space, I'm sure Patrick Moore would have told us already.

'I'd love to go to the Moon, if I wasn't paying.'

Mrs Mary Rockett of Kilburn, north London: 'I can't understand the fascination of space and why we have poured millions of pounds into it when we still have so many problems to sort out on our own planet.

'I wouldn't want to travel in space, I'd find it all a bit too nerve-racking.'

Mr Colin Shuttleworth of Manchester: 'I firmly believe there has to be at least one other life form out in space, and our message to them should be, 'Come in peace'.

'I'd love to travel in space, although I don't expect it would be very comfortable or relaxing, but it would be one hell of an experience. I'd settle for a trip to the Moon.'

Mrs Janet Friend of Oxford: 'I think it's wonderfully romantic to think there might be other beings in our galaxy, but I doubt they really exist.

'I'm not adventurous enough to want to travel in space - I'd be too frightened that I'd never get home again.'