Great story, Brent, and thanks for the send!
And, as much as I would love to see people on Mars in my lifetime, I believe
that we need to have a strong foothold on the Moon first, to use it as a base
of operations.
-[ Received Mail Content ]--
Subject : [scifinoir2] To boldly go to Mars, Buzz Aldrin writes
Date : Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:13:47 -0400
From : brent wodehouse brent_wodeho...@thefence.us
To : scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/boldly+Mars/1798832/story.html
To boldly go to Mars
Forget the moon, the next goal should be to colonize the Red Planet, Buzz
Aldrin writes
By BUZZ ALDRIN, Freelance
July 17, 2009
On the spring morning in 1927 when Charles Lindbergh set off alone across
the Atlantic Ocean, only a handful of explorer-adventurers were capable of
even attempting the feat. Many had tried before Lindbergh's successful
flight, but all had failed and many lost their lives in the process. Most
people then thought transatlantic travel was an impossible dream. But 40
years later, 20,000 people a day were safely flying the same route that
the Lone Eagle had voyaged. Transatlantic flight had become routine.
Forty years ago yesterday, Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins and I began our
quarter-million-mile journey through the blackness of space to reach the
moon.
Neil and I walked its dusty ancient soil, becoming the first humans to
stand upon another world. Yet today, no nation - including the U.S. - is
capable of sending anyone beyond Earth's orbit, much less deeper into
space.
For the past four years, NASA has been on a path to resume lunar
exploration with people, duplicating (in a more complicated fashion) what
Neil, Mike and our colleagues did four decades ago. But this approach -
called the Vision for Space Exploration - is not visionary; nor will it
ultimately be successful in restoring U.S. space leadership. Like its
Apollo predecessor, this plan will prove to be a dead end littered with
broken spacecraft, broken dreams and broken policies.
Instead, I propose a new Unified Space Vision, a plan to ensure U.S. space
leadership for the 21st century. It wouldn't require building new rockets
from scratch, as current plans do, and it would make maximum use of the
capabilities we have without breaking the bank. It is a reasonable and
affordable plan - if we again think in visionary terms.
On television and in movies, Star Trek showed what could be achieved when
we dared to boldly go where no man has gone before. In real life, I've
travelled that path, and I know that with the right goal and support from
most Americans, we can boldly go, again.
A race to the moon is a dead end. While the lunar surface can be used to
develop advanced technologies, it is a poor location for homesteading. The
moon is a lifeless, barren world, its stark desolation matched by its
hostility to all living things. And replaying the glory days of Apollo
will not advance the cause of U.S. space leadership or inspire the support
and enthusiasm of the public and the next generation of explorers.
Our next generation must think boldly in terms of a goal for the space
program: Mars for our future. I am not suggesting a few visits to plant
flags and do photo-ops but a journey to make the first homestead in space:
an American colony on a new world.
Robotic exploration of Mars has yielded tantalizing clues about what was
once a water-soaked planet. Deep beneath the soils of Mars might lie
trapped frozen water, possibly with traces of still-extant primitive life
forms. Climate change on a vast scale has reshaped Mars. With Earth in the
throes of its own climate evolution, human outposts on Mars could be a
virtual laboratory to study these vast planetary changes. And the best way
to study Mars is with the two hands, eyes and ears of a geologist, first
on a moon orbiting Mars and then on the Red Planet's surface.
Mobilizing the space program to focus on a human colony on Mars while at
the same time helping our international partners explore the moon on their
own would galvanize public support for space exploration and provide a
cause to inspire students. Mars exploration would renew our space industry
by opening up technology development to all players, not just the
traditional big aerospace contractors. If we avoided the pitfall of aiming
solely for the moon, we could be on Mars by the 60th anniversary year of
our Apollo 11 flight.
Much has been said recently about the Vision for Space Exploration and the
future of the international space station. As we all reflect upon our
historic lunar journey and the future of the space program, I challenge
America's leaders to think boldly and look beyond the moon. Yes, my vision
of Mars for America requires bold thinking. But as my friend and Gemini
crewmate Jim Lovell has noted, our Apollo days were a time when we did
bold things in space to achieve leadership. It is time we were bold again
in space.
Buzz Aldrin was the second
