Robert Bigelow
© United Launch AllianceBillionaire and Nasa partner Robert Bigelow says aliens are "right under people's noses".
Billionaire Robert Bigelow, who is working with Nasa on lightweight structures for humans in space, says he's "absolutely convinced" aliens exist - and they're here on Earth.

Bigelow, 73, is the owner of hotel chain Budget Suites of America. In 1999 he founded Bigelow Aerospace, which has launched experimental space modules. Its aim is to develop space habitats to be used as orbital hotels, research labs and factories.

For the past year, an experimental Bigelow Expandable Activity Module has been attached to the International Space Station and has survived, passing a test of its ability to withstand space debris.

There has been and is an existing presence, an ET [extra-terrestrial] presence," Bigelow said. "And I spent millions and millions and millions - I probably spent more as an individual than anybody else in the United States has ever spent on this subject."

Logan asked Bigelow if he thought it was risky to make such comments. He replied that he didn't care what people thought. It wouldn't "change the reality of what I know".

Logan asked him if future human missions to space would lead to alien encounters.

"You don't have to go anywhere... It's just like right under people's noses," Bigelow replied.

He traced his fascination with aliens back to a closer encounter his grandparents had with a UFO on a road just outside Las Vegas: "It really sped up and came right into their face and filled up the entire windshield of the car. And it took off at a right angle and shot off into the distance," he said.

Nasa's position on aliens is that no evidence has been found of their existence.