Astronaut Apollo 8 doubts that NASA can send people to the moon and Mars

L & 39 NASA's former astronaut Bill Anders thinks sending people to Mars is a "stupid" and even "ridiculous" idea.

According to him, it's best to develop programs for sending automated devices based in space like InSight Lander.

This is Newsweek, recalling that Anders was one of the first .people who left the Earth's orbit and stole the Moon at edge of "Apollo 8" in 1968.

"What is the need for this? What is pushing us on Mars? I do not think the public is interested in that, "said the former astronaut.

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NASA strengthens its space exploration program plans to send a manned mission to the moon by the end of the next decade, so the likely launch of people on a natural satellite will take place at the beginning of the 2030s. But Andres believes that the US space agency is not the same as during the Apollo program, and in the 1960s and 1970s, six times, American astronauts were sent to the moon and brought back on Earth

"NASA can not reach the moon today. The agency is so skinny. It has turned into an investment program. Many centers are just trying to stay busy, "the ex-astronaut criticized.

NASA reportedly went astray in 1972 when the Apollo program closed.

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"I think the shuttle program was a big mistake. In reality, it has not achieved anything except a spectacular launch. But expectations were not justified. The space station only existed because we had a shuttle and vice versa. NASA is behaving badly after the last launches on the Moon, "added Anders.