New photo Sending humans to Mars would be ‘stupid’ because the missions will be too expensive, says Nasa Apollo 8 astronaut

A FORMER Nasa astronaut has slammed the space agency for its plans to take humans to Mars.

Bill Anders, who flew around the moon as part of the famous Apollo 8 mission, labelled Nasa’s ambitions to take crews to the red planet “stupid” and “ridiculous”.

Pictured is Bill Anders during the 1968 Apollo 8 mission, which looped around the moon 10 times

Nasa is currently planning to send crewed missions to Mars as early as the 2030s, and currently has two uncrewed robotic probes in operation on the planet.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Anders, 85, said he was a “big supporter” of the agency’s “remarkable” unmanned missions, “mainly because they’re much cheaper”.

However, he argued that public support simply wasn’t there for vastly more expensive crewed ventures.

“What’s the imperative? What’s pushing us to go to Mars?” he said, adding “I don’t think the public is that interested”.

Getty - Contributor

Decades on from his lunar mission, former astronaut Anders believes Nasa has lost its way[/caption]

Former US astronaut Bill Anders, 85, was the lunar module pilot for the country’s December 1968 Apollo 8 mission, which completed 10 orbits around the Moon before returning to Earth.

It was the furthest humans had travelled from Earth at that point, and was crucial in paving the way for the famous Apollo 11 moon landing just seven months later.

But the former astronaut is scathing of the direction taken by Nasa since the days of the space race.

“Nasa couldn’t get to the Moon today. They’re so ossified,” he said.

During the Apollo 8 mission, Anders took this famous photo, later dubbed “earthrise”, as his spacecraft orbited the moon

“Nasa has turned into a jobs programme… many of the centres are mainly interested in keeping busy and you don’t see the public support other than they get the workers their pay and their congressmen get re-elected.”

Admitting he is not a “very popular guy” at the agency due to his opinions, Anders added: “I think NASA’s lucky to have what they’ve got — which is still hard, in my mind, to justify.”

The 85-year-old’s former crewmate Frank Borman, who was commander of the Apollo 8 mission, disagreed.

He told the BBC: “I’m not as critical of NASA as Bill is. I firmly believe that we need robust exploration of our solar system and I think man is part of that.”

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However, Borman was critical of private space ventures SpaceX and Blue Origin, which are being bankrolled by tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Mr Borman said: “I do think there’s a lot of hype about Mars that is nonsense.”

“Musk and Bezos, they’re talking about putting colonies on Mars, that’s nonsense.”

Nasa currently plans to set up a colony on the moon so help it prepare for future missions to the red planet.

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News Pictures Sending humans to Mars would be ‘stupid’ because the missions will be too expensive, says Nasa Apollo 8 astronaut

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