Apollo 8 Astronauts Say Putting Humans On Mars Is Stupid

Dhir Acharya - Dec 27, 2018

Two astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 50 years ago, including its commander, say that putting humans on Mars is stupid, nonsense, and ridiculous.

One of the first humans to orbit the moon said it is “stupid” and “almost ridiculous” to put humans on Mars.

These are words from Bill Anders, a pilot of the lunar module Apollo 8 that orbited the moon on 1968’s Christmas Eve. The man made this statement while being interviewed by BBC on the Radio 5 Live.

Apollo 8 crew

According to Anders, it makes sense to send cheaper missions to Mars, but there’s no point in having an astronaut walk on the nearest neighbor planet to the Earth. Additionally, commander Frank Borman of the Apollo 8 said that Jeff Bezos’ and Elon Musk’s plans to settle down on Mars are “nonsense.”

Bill Anders

“What’s the imperative?” asked Anders. “NASA couldn’t get to the Moon today,” he said. NASA’s outspoken critic complained that the agency has become a jobs program, many centers only focus on keeping busy, and there’s not much support from the public.

Anders, 85 years old and retired, also gave criticism to the missions orbiting near Earth that followed the Apollo missions. He thinks that the space shuttle was a mistake, which did nothing but displayed an exciting launch, it could not keep its promise. He said ISS is still there only because there is a space shuttle, and vice-versa. And that since the late lunar landings, NASA failed to manage the manned program.

Frank Borman

Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman were the three men aboard the Apollo 8, they spent 20 hours in space, which was a huge milestone for the entire world. At that time, the crew successfully completed ten orbits around the moon.

It’s quite surprising to hear these opinion from a proud patriot and servant of the United States military. Anders knows well his view doesn’t fit with many others at NASA, yet still honestly stated that NASA’s lucky for their achievements.

Frank Borman, less cynical than Anders, said that NASA needs to keep pursuing further and deeper understandings of our solar system. However, he still agrees with Anders when talking about the Mars missions.