Alex James: "It is 1999, we should be building spaceships"

Some pundits thought the group, who are playing a special B-sides show at a club in Camden, north London on Monday, were preparing to go out with a bang.

They are soon releasing a box set of all their singles over the past decade and are the subject of an official biography by journalist Stuart Maconie.

But now James, Albarn, and fellow members Dave Rowntree and Graham Coxon are working on the Beagle 2 project, to record a song to be played back to Earth to announce the probe had successfully landed on Mars.

James, who came up with the idea, said: "We just thought Britain should have a space programme. It is 1999 and we should be building spaceships.

"I couldn't think of anything better to do and three phone calls later I was talking to a man with a spaceship."

The Beagle 2 when it lands on Mars

He said it was "fascinating" to meet the Open University's Professor Colin Pillinger, the man behind the �25m project, which will be launched with the European Space Agency's �110m Mars Express mission.

When it has landed, Beagle 2 will send out a "mole" to gather samples of rock, soil and gas which will be examined for chemical traces of life.

The government has donated �5m to add to the �16m already reportedly raised for the project, and the team have until October to convince the agency they can raise the rest of the money.

Artist Damien Hirst is also said to be preparing paintings to travel on board the probe.

Alex James said he would love to be a celebrity astronaut on the first civilian flight to Mars.

But he added: "They will probably send Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise instead. It will probably be cheaper because they could make a film out of it as well."