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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Ian Sample Science editor

Leave space missions to billionaires and robots, says astronomer royal

Elon Musk celebrates after the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Elon Musk celebrates after the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Photograph: Joe Raedle/AFP/Getty Images

The world’s space agencies should scrap plans to send astronauts to the moon and Mars and leave them to explorers and billionaires who can privately fund and risk such adventures, the astronomer royal says.

Lord Martin Rees said technical improvements and more sophisticated artificial intelligence meant robotic missions were becoming ever more capable of exploration, and even construction, in space, making it unnecessary for space agencies to front far-flung human missions.

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