Over a crackly satellite phone connection today, Prof Siegert managed a laugh at the timing.

BBC: Why did the Antarctic drilling project fail?

According to Prof Siegert, it would be "extraordinary" if the samples did not reveal signs of microbial life.

BBC: New age of exploration in the hunt for extreme life

The chief scientist, and main driver behind the project, Prof Martin Siegert, prepared a few words for on-site cameraman Pete Bucktrout.

BBC: Why did the Antarctic drilling project fail?

According to Professor Martin Siegert of Bristol University, the chief scientist of the Lake Ellsworth mission, water is the connection that binds the expeditions.

BBC: New age of exploration in the hunt for extreme life

Prof Martin Siegert, from Edinburgh University, heads up the Lake Ellsworth project.

BBC: 'New frontier' of Antarctic lake exploration

There are also around 2, 200 private shareholders (one of the biggest, with 5.6% of the bank, is Theo Siegert, a German, though his voting rights are limited to 100 shares).

ECONOMIST: The Swiss National Bank

Last summer, when I first met Prof Siegert, I was too polite to remind him of what had happened to another British science project, the Beagle 2 mission to Mars, the spacecraft named after the ship that had carried Charles Darwin.

BBC: Why did the Antarctic drilling project fail?

Just for fun, we sent Paul Siegert for a walk on the South Downs and set him the task of working out just how many quangos have a say in some of Sussex's most iconic views - the answer is rather shocking.

BBC: NEWS | Programmes | Politics Show | South East: Quango fog...

Martin Siegert points out that the water in the drill head will only be a few degrees above 0C as it enters the lake - it inevitably cools as it flows 3km down into a hole that is surrounded by ice at -35C.

BBC: 'New frontier' of Antarctic lake exploration