Reflection on Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration by Buzz Aldrin with Leonard David

               In this book, you will learn about Buzz Aldrin’s trip to the moon, but more importantly his plans for the future of space travel. He has done a lot of thinking about this. Aldrin says we shouldn’t go back to the moon. He would like it to become an international waypoint on the way to Mars, which he sees as the real prize. He identifies two goals in the future of space travel: a continuously expanding human presence in space and global leadership (by America) in space. As for the moon, he says we should “establish some form of Lunar Economic Development Authority” to share the moon with international partners and lend them a hand in reaching it. He says we should strike deals to let our private sector send robots to the moon while we help other governments like India and China get to the moon in exchange for them giving an American a seat on their lander.

               His big plan is deep-space (beyond the moon) cyclers, that would go between Earth and Mars, using gravity from their orbits to satisfy most of their propulsion needs. Reusability is huge. For most of the history of space travel, rockets are disposable, meaning that huge costs get spent and are useless after one trip. The big challenge for the future is to build space ships that can be used over and over again, like any commercial airliner, which doesn’t throw out the jet when it arrives at its destination. The cycler would pass by Earth and never land. Instead, another ship would taxi the astronauts up to the ship, where they would ride to Mars and then taxi down to the red planet in a journey that should take about 6 months.

               There are a few technologies we need to develop. On is aerocapture, the technique to reduce your velocity as you reach a planet by using the atmosphere as a brake. This creates friction, slowing down the spacecraft. Radiation protection is needed to protect human life on long-duration missions. Life support for the long-haul is critical to provide travelers with air, water, and food over time. We also need redundant systems just in case of failure. Inflatable structures are useful as well, as they can be quickly assembled in place on Mars and stored easily during transport. Landing systems are important to ensure not only that we land safely, but also in the place we choose to. Buzz also wants to put telescopes on the far side of the moon and eventually mars that would be able to pick up sounds and images that are too sensitive to be heard or seen on Earth due to all the activity on our planet.

               It’s important to remember that in the long-term, Mars isn’t just for human exploration or human settlement. We should, therefore, design the infrastructure we build there for human settlement so that we are ready when the time comes. Aldrin hopes that the president will announce on the 50^th anniversary of the moon landing in July 2019 a plan to go to Mars. I hope this happens too. It would be an amazing accomplishment and I’m sure that America could achieve the goal. There are a lot of interesting things to think about in terms of what kind of government should be established, who should be allowed to go to the planet, what types of institutions they would need at varying sizes of population and so on. I’d be tempted to go.

Here's a cool picture of what the view would be like from Mars' moon Deimos, where we may land a preliminary base before landing humans on Mars.

Miscellaneous Facts:

• Since 1961, 600 people from 38 countries have gone into Earth orbit, 24 have traveled below low Earth orbit, and 12 have walked on the surface of the moon.
• Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent just 2.5 hours walking on the moon and in total humans have only walked 22 hours on the moon’s surface.
• It takes three days to get to the moon from Earth.
• The best near-term opportunities to travel to Mars are in 2033 and 2035.