William Shatner, the man who popularized space for millions on the hit show Star Trek, and Elon Musk, the man who wants to bring humanity into space, are at odds over the whole living on Mars thing.
Shatner, best known for his role as Captain Kirk, is the host of the FOX reality show Stars on Mars. He serves as Mission Control for celebrities like Lance Armstrong, Marshawn Lynch, and Natasha Leggero.
In an interview with Space.com, the 92-year-old (impressive) didn’t mince words when criticizing Musk’s plan to get to the red planet.
“Mars is lifeless,” he said. “The mystery of Mars is what took place millions of years ago. It’s obvious that there was water, which may be frozen under the surface. But it’s so difficult to get there.”
He’s not wrong. It would take about seven months and 300 million miles. Then you’d have to wait for the Earth and Mars to line up again before you could leave, and then another seven months back.
“A year-and-a-half of three people in a spaceship. Colonizing a planet other than Earth is a great concept, but practically I can’t imagine it,” he said.
Earlier this year, Musk made the prediction that it’s “highly likely” people will make it to Mars within 10 years. How confident is he? He’s “congenitally optimistic.” I had to look up congenitally, it means from birth. So he’s just always optimistic? Fine, whatever.
Shatner shares a different view, obviously. He thinks people should be more worried about what’s outside their windows than in the stars.
“The only place to live is Earth, and we’re defiling it. Stop thinking that we’ll all move to Mars, because we’re not going to.”
Right now we should be focused on cleaning up “the defecation we’ve done here.”
“This beautiful planet took 3.8 billion years to evolve, and right now I’m looking out a window at green trees and birds and animals that evolved.”
Shatner is, of course, just an actor. Although he’s been around pseudo space related things for most of his life. The truth is no one knows when or if we’ll actually go, but maybe Shatner’s new view comes from hosting the show. It is, after all, meant to mimic those conditions the best they can be mimicked.
“They’ve gone to unprecedented lengths for a game show to simulate the atmosphere that there were portraying. It’s a lovely expenditure of time and money to make a facsimile of what humans are going to have to do on Mars. Even the sets and their design is extraordinary.”
Sounds not fun. The final episode of Stars on Mars airs tonight on Fox. It’s also streaming on Tubi.
