This has got to be the most pointless article the BBC has published about the recent Mars missions and space exploration in general. Patrick Stewart, the actor that plays Captain Jean-Luc Picard in TV's Star Trek has allegedly said in an interview that he did not believe the human race was ready to begin thinking about beaming down on other planets. Well duh!

"I'm a bit of a wet blanket when it comes to the whole business of space travel,"

"As I get older my unease at the time and the money that has to be spent on projects putting human beings back to the moon, and on to another planet, is so enormous," he said.

Do you suppose that they think he really is the captain of a space ship and therefore has an informed opinion on the value of space travel? He's an actor! This doesn't give him any particularly special insight into the value of space exploration for the human race. Unless... what, you mean, Star Trek isn't real?

Now if they'd have asked the actor who played Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon, I'm sure he'd have a different opinion about the value of colonising other planets.

Give me a break!