The report, commissioned by the 185-year-old RAS, says the British government should support human space exploration for the first time.

Government policy has consistently been to support robot missions, such as the European Space Agency's Venus Express probe which is due to blast off next week, but not human space exploration.

Helen Sharman became the first Briton in space when she blasted off in the Soviet Soyuz TM-12 capsule on May 18, 1991. Michael Foale, a duel US-British national, has flown missions with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The report says that human expeditions could help solve profound scientific questions such as the history of the solar system and the existence of life beyond Earth, and would also boost British industry and inspire future achievement among children.

"We find that profound scientific questions relating to the history of the solar system and the existence of life beyond Earth can best -- perhaps only -- be achieved by human exploration on the Moon or Mars, supported by appropriate automated systems," a summary of the report said.

"The wider commercial educational, social and political benefits help justify the substantial expenditure that full UK participation in a future international programme of HSE (human space exploration) will require."

Expanding the space programme would require an investment of about 150 million pounds (262 million dollars, 219 million euros) per year, a massive expansion of the current government science budget.

Professor Frank Close, of Oxford University, chaired the commission and wrote the report with former RAS president Professor Ken Pounds, from the University of Leicester, and Dr John Dudeney, Deputy Director of the British Antarctic Survey.

The British government must decide in December whether to support the European Space Agency's Aurora programme, which has the long-term goal of sending astronauts to Mars.

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