London — The captain of the USS Enterprise thinks people should stay on Earth instead of boldly going where no one has gone before.
Patrick Stewart, who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, said in an interview published Tuesday that he thinks interplanetary travel for humans is a bad idea.
"I'm a bit of a wet blanket when it comes to the whole business of space travel," Stewart was quoted as saying on the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Web site.
"I would like to see us get this place right first before we have the arrogance to put significantly flawed civilizations out onto other planets — even though they may be utterly uninhabited," he said.
British actor Patrick Stewart is seen here in a 2003 file photo. (Max Nash/AP)
Stewart, 63, said he approved of unmanned missions such as NASA's use of twin rovers to explore the surface of Mars. But he objected to sending astronauts, saying the trips were too expensive.
"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 onto another planet, is so enormous," Stewart said. "And it would take up so many resources, which I personally feel should be directed at our own planet."
The BBC said Stewart made the comments in an interview with its World Service radio broadcast.
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