The second man to walk on the moon perplexed over NASA’s decision to ignore the planet
Permanent, manned moon base would make reaching Mars much easier: Aldrin
The road to Mars leads right past the moon. So why isn’t a return trip on the agenda?
That’s what Buzz Aldrin wants to know. President Obama recently green-lighted a brand new mission and a new budget for NASA, including a grand long-term goal: a manned mission to Mars. But Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, says the moon is much more essential to American space efforts.
In its haste to make new policy, Aldrin and other experts say, NASA is overlooking a critical component of space travel: a permanent, manned base on the moon that would make reaching Mars a much easier task. Establishing a lunar base could provide a safe source of water and a site for fuel depots, which would reduce the cost of transporting fuel from earth for an eventual Mars mission.
He said returning to the moon 38 years later should be at the heart of NASA’s plans, and he said he fears domestic politics may be playing with our goals for space.
“In the bigger picture, there seems to be a lot of contention as we approach the midterm elections,” Aldrin said. “Inside the administration, there are a lot of people who are focused on showing the public how much progress has been made since the election of 2008. That’s generated a lot of attention internally. And that’s resulted in a lot of horse-trading about the goals for NASA.”
Greg Allison, executive vice president of the National Space Society and a contractor for NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center, agrees with the veteran astronaut about the crucial importance of the moon.
“Going to Mars requires an infrastructure in space,” he told. “That’s where a moon base would come in.”
On Monday, Obama signed the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which charts the space agency’s trajectory and will shape the nation’s science, aerospace and information technology development for decades to come. The moon does not factor into the new plan.
