The moon
may have been the entire world for a day for Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin 40
years ago, but today he hopes the United States and the world set their sights
on a far grander goal: Spreading humanity to Mars and perhaps asteroids and
comets.
But NASA's
plan to replace its three aging space shuttles with Orion capsules to carry
astronauts to the moon by 2020 may not justify its $35 billion cost if it stops
there, said Aldrin, one of the first humans to set foot on the moon during the Apollo
11 landing on July 20, 1969.
Instead,
the United States can aid international partners in exploring the moon and free
up its own spaceflight resources to develop systems for even more ambitious
goals, he told in an interview.
"While the
international explorers, with our help, are going to the
moon, we can develop the long-duration life support systems for other
things," said Aldrin, 79. "Flying by a comet, visiting an asteroid and
station-keeping with it."
Mars
within reach
With an
international base on the moon and vital technologies like in-space refueling,
Aldrin envisions an ambitious series of expeditions to send astronauts on a
deep space mission to visit the asteroid Aphophis when it swings near Earth in
2021. A temporarily manned base on the Mars moon Phobos could follow, he added.
"By that
time, we'd be ready to put people in a gradual permanence on Mars by 2031,"
Aldrin said. "That, in a nutshell, is what I really think we should be doing."
NASA's
current transition from the space
shuttle to Orion is a huge step backward, Aldrin said. The shuttle's may
not have lived up to its initial expectations, but its ability to haul tons of
cargo to orbit and land on a runway is a capability that should not be lost in
order to replace it with something faster and cheaper, he stressed.
"What
happens to U.S. space global leadership if everything is going to be done on
the cheap and we're not going to think ahead, and we're going back to the moon
for some reason that really won't justify the cost of human habitation," he
said.
The United
States should "do the things that this nation can do and strive toward
maintaining globally space leaderships. And that means lifting bodies, runway
landers and not going back to the moon, because we've been there," Aldrin
added.
The moon
at heart
While the
future of American spaceflight remains to be seen, Aldrin said he takes comfort
knowing that the history-making Apollo
11 moon landing still resonates today.
"I'm kind
of glad it does," he said. "Whatever we do in space is not on the front page
unless there's something going wrong or it's highly unusual. And it doesn't
capture the budget discussion."
Aldrin and
Neil Armstrong spent a day on the lunar surface and just 2 1/2 hours walking
outside their Eagle lander. Their crewmate Michael Collins orbited overhead
inside the command
module Columbia. Five other Apollo moon landings followed.
In the
past, Aldrin has frankly recounted the depression and bout with alcoholism that
followed his flight aboard Apollo 11.
Now, 40
years after the mission, he said he's matured considerably since the flight - his
last space mission and has released a new autobiography "Magnificent Desolation."
In a bid to spark interest in spaceflight in today's youth ad children, he
rapped about the moonshot with Snoop Dogg and Talib Kewli, and has a new
children's book about space exploration.
The Apollo
11 anniversary, he said, is a chance for NASA to remind the American public of
the country's technical prowess.
"I do think
that it does momentarily keep the public abreast of what we're doing now, and
they'll look back," Aldrin said. "Of course it's been a long time, so many
people weren't alive when those things happened, and those that were are, I
guess, maturing a little bit and look back with a bit of nostalgia."
But the
moon, Aldrin added, hasn't changed.
"Well, it
still looks about the same when I look at it," Aldrin said. "But I know inside,
it sounds kind of trite, that it's really not the stranger that it was. It's
somewhat of a friend now because I've been there."
Aldrin said
he still vividly remembers that first moonwalk. Armstrong called the view
beautiful, but it was so much more. Aldrin, instead, saw what described as
magnificent desolation.
"Beautiful,
I thought, that's not quite right," he said. "It's magnificent that we're here
... but what a desolate place this was."
He still
recalls the apparent stillness.
"No life,
no motion, no air. And just the same uniform color of all the dust that
reflected light differently depending on the angle of the sun and your view,"
Aldrin said. "It just wasn't a very welcome place at all."
Forty
years after astronauts first set foot on the moon, SPACE.com examines what
wešve done since and whether America has the right stuff to get back to the
moon by 2020 and reach beyond. For exclusive interviews and analysis, visit
SPACE.com daily through July 20, the anniversary of the historic landing.
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