Robots should be sent on missions to Mars, Britain's leading astronomer has claimed.
Britain's top astronomer wants robots to go to Mars instead of humans
Lord Martin Rees has claimed that bots could explore the red planet far more cheaply than sending humans and claims that the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence "weakens the practical case" for using people in space exploration.
The astronomer royal told BBC Radio 4: "We can have flotillas of small robotic spacecraft equipped with AI exploring the whole system.
"Maybe there's a case for sending some people back to the moon as something symbolic, but I think there's no case for publicly funded flight to Mars with human beings."
Lord Rees continued: "No one's thinking we'll send people to Mars in less than 20 years from now and by then I think we can be confident of further advances which will mean the machines can do the geology and anything else as well as a human.
"And the cost gap is enormous, probably about a factor of 100."