Apollo astronaut Aldrin urges US to land on Mars
June 19, 2009
US astronaut Buzz Aldrin speaks during a press conference in Hong Kong. NASA should focus on sending a man to Mars and helping other nations travel in space, Aldrin said.
NASA should focus on sending a man to Mars and helping other nations travel in space, Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin said Friday.
Aldrin, who was the second man to set foot on the moon after Neil Armstrong, said the US space agency needed to stop concentrating on simply developing new rockets and turn its attention to visiting the neighbouring planet.
"I think our resources should... be on a pathway that can lead us to Mars," he told reporters during a trip to Hong Kong.
Aldrin added that when the Apollo 11 crew returned from their mission and began touring the world, they realised the sense of achievement did not belong only to them.
"We spoke to many people in different countries and they said, 'We did it'," said Aldrin. "These quests to space are capable of unifying people to see the successes of the human race."
"I think the moon needs to be visited by nations with space programmes that have not realised that point yet," he said. "[The US] can help them do that, with our experience."
Aldrin was speaking at the launch of a three-day exhibition at the Hong Kong Space Museum celebrating the moon landing. The 40th anniversary of the landing falls on July 21.
The 79-year-old recently opened an account on the social networking site Twitter to promote the 40th anniversary. He currently has more than 3,000 followers.
When asked what he would have tweeted to the world after walking on the moon, Aldrin smiled and said, "I can't wait to get home."
(c) 2009 AFP



The value is unimaginable, even as just an off world research facility the possibilities are endless.
That seems to be something that Mr. Aldrin doesn't get:(. He just wants a half-trillion dollar "fire&forget" mission, which is a waste of time and money. I want colonies instead.
Oh, and I wasn't the one who rated you two down:P.
On a relevant note, think of the things we found out when we first stuck an animal into orbit. We had no idea there was fatal intrasolar radiation in abundance in belts throughout the solar system, sure we knew about the dangers of solar flares but there was so much more.
Sometimes you need to get there first in order to plan to stay.
Other projects like creating open-source, free software and content for education and business would be worth the funding. If you are going to spend gobs of money on something, how about commissioning professional quality audio MP3s of the great classical works of literature for the visually impaired or for busy people could enjoy these works while doing other things. Then link the audio to text files in English and other languages so that people who are learning English can improve their ability while understanding the story. I bet that there are lots of voice actors who are too ugly for movies but can do audio books. Do similar things with textbooks from introductory to advanced on many fundamental subjects. Make all of this free so any nation with internet access can have good educational content.
We need near light speed travel if man is to survive space radiation so he can colonize.
But unfortunately, we still have the dunder heads
at our elite space facilites un willing to
advance exotic space propulsion concepts that
have forgot what a box is.