“Mission to Mars” – In new book, Buzz Aldrin gives his “vision for space exploration”

Buzz Aldrin and Leonard David have a new book coming out on May 7th in which Buzz lays out his views on the most effective way to move forward in space exploration and development: MISSION TO MARS: My Vision for Space Exploration – National Geographic Society

In the book, which includes a foreword by Aldrin’s son Andrew, Aldrin makes the case and argues passionately for pushing our boundaries of knowledge and exploration of our solar system and presents his “unified space vision.” Aldrin discusses the history of space flight, including a reflective, not nostalgic, look at the people, technologies and steps that were taken to accomplish America’s Apollo moon landings, and plots a course of future exploration. He says “Do not put NASA astronauts on the moon. They have other places to go.” And he emphasizes that the path forward is not a competition; we cannot restart an engine to rerun a race we previously won. This is a controversial notion that causes significant division among astronauts.

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Apollo was a get-there-in-a-hurry, straightforward, space-race strategy. Today, Aldrin calls for a unified international effort to explore and utilize the moon, a partnership that involves commercial enterprise and other nationwide building upon the Apollo mission.