Page 44 - BBC Sky at Night - September 2017 UK

44

Buzz Aldrin

Why we’ve got to get to

He may be one of the most famous moonwalkers, but
Buzz Aldrin has spent the past 30 years developing a plan

to get people to Mars. He tells Jamie Carter why

“What concerns me most about
expeditionary missions is that we may
go there once or twice and never go back.
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olonising Buzz Aldrin regarded as
the Solar a seminal moment
System is for humanity, but only
Cbecoming the ‘in’ thing until someone sets foot on Mars.
among billionaires. SpaceX supremo Elon “I want to be remembered as the man
Musk recently talked putting a million who led the world to Mars, for a permanent
people on the Red Planet within 100 years, settlement,” he points out.
while Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos thinks he can
help spread a trillion people throughout Occupation vs exploration
the Solar System. That’s big talk, but Aldrin, who is constantly refining the ideas
there’s one man who’s spent the last he first set out in his 2013 book Mission to
three decades telling anyone who’ll listen Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration,
about his plans to go to Mars, and why now wants to play a pivotal role in
ISTOCK, NASA, NASA-JPL-CALTECH, MARK THOMAS/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK walked on the Moon in 1969 as part more important reason is that it’s vastly more
the push to the Red Planet. But there
it’s so important we do so.
remains a fundamental question: why
“I’m 87 years old and I’m getting
impatient,” says Dr Buzz Aldrin, who
do we need to occupy Mars? Why not
just pay it a quick visit?
of Apollo 11. “We’ve been stuck in
“What concerns me most about
low-Earth orbit for too long and I believe
expeditionary missions is that we may
go there once or twice and never go back
that we need to break this malaise,”
he says. “I do believe we can establish
– it would be flags and footprints again,”
permanent habitation on Mars by 2039, and
says Aldrin, citing the Apollo Moon landings,
the last of which was 45 years ago. “But the
I have a plan to achieve it.”
If that date seems rather specific, there’s a
good reason for it: it would be the 70th anniversary
! Aldrin seen
infrastructure in one spacecraft and the quality
of Apollo 11’s Moon landing. Not that Aldrin
spacewalking during
wants to be constantly reminded of that. It may be
of the science would be dramatically lower.” >
skyatnightmagazine.com 2017 the Gemini 12 mission expensive to send people up there with all their