Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner, who travelled to the edge of space so that he could jump back to Earth, has branded Nasa's ambition to discover whether there is life on Mars a waste of money.
Baumgartner, who broke the sound barrier after leaping from 39km above the Earth almost two weeks ago, urged the US government to divert the money it spends on Mars to environmental projects on Earth.
"A lot of guys, they are talking about landing on Mars," he said.
"[They say] it is so important to land on Mars because we would learn a lot more about our planet here, our Earth.
"It makes no sense to me because we know a lot about Earth and we still treat our planet, which is very fragile, in a really bad way."
Earlier this year Nasa landed its Curiosity rover on Mars. The plutonium-powered robot will explore the surface of the Red Planet for upwards of 10 years at a cost of $2.5-billion.
"That is tax money," Baumgartner, 43, said.
"They have to spend it on something that makes sense - saving our planet."
