Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration

217 Pages·2013·7.62 MB·English

by  Buzz Aldrin

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Published by the National Geographic Society
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Copyright © 2013 Buzz Aldrin Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or
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eISBN: 978-1-42621018-1
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CONTENTS
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Foreword by Andrew Aldrin
CHAPTER ONE
The View From Air Force One
CHAPTER TWO
Time for Decision-making: Call for a Unified Space Vision
CHAPTER THREE
Your Space: Building the Business Case
CHAPTER FOUR
Dreams of My Moon
CHAPTER FIVE
Voyage to Armageddon
CHAPTER SIX
The March to Mars
CHAPTER SEVEN
Homesteading the Red Planet
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Clarion Call
Appendix
Illustration Credits
Andrew Aldrin and his father, Buzz Aldrin, 2012
(Illustration Credit fm1.1)
FOREWORD
BY ANDREW ALDRIN
This book represents a journey of its own. It began the moment my
father set foot back on Earth. Since that time he has been constantly
thinking about how people from Earth will inhabit another planet. What
you will read is a vision of the extension of humanity to Mars, to be
sure. But the strength of my father’s vision is the pathway as much as it
is the planet. It is about the journey as much as the destination.
I was there for most of it. I remember some of it.
My earliest recollections are probably of me sitting around the kitchen
table looking at these fantastic models of space planes, and
understanding almost nothing about the space shuttle that was going to
be the next generation of spacecraft intended to fly people into orbit.
There was an impassioned discussion—well, more of a monologue—
regarding early designs for a space shuttle system that had a piloted
flyback booster for the first stage and why we needed to separate crew
from cargo. That is about all I remember. I was 11 and had nothing to
contribute, except for a willing ear.
And that is the way it went for the first 20 years or so of our
conversations about space travel. I listened, and I learned, while my dad
talked about space.
Some of these conversations involved the great thinkers of our time.
When my dad came up with an idea, he would seek out the people who
were doing the most creative thinking at the moment. They would
usually pick up the phone when he called. At one point he began to look
critically at the design of the space station. The structure just didn’t
seem efficient. I recall that he became enamored with geodesic
structures, so he naturally called on Buckminster Fuller. Now that was
an amazing set of conversations. At the time it seemed like competing
soliloquies. But I began to see many more of Bucky’s ideas creep into the
design.
And it is not just the well known and famous who captured my
father’s attention.
If anyone had an idea that fit in my dad’s vision of the future, he
would go and talk to them. Often he became the tireless advocate for
their ideas. He was building an architecture of systems. If someone had
an element that fit in his structure, he wanted to use it.
You will see a lot of other people’s elements in the pages of this book.
But the system, in the broadest sense possible, is truly his own.
All of the pieces fit together. That may be the real virtue of this book.
There are hundreds, probably thousands, of people who have talked with
my father, read his articles, heard his speeches, and watched him on TV.
Each of them contributed a snippet to Dad’s overall vision. Sometimes
the snippets seemed impossibly disjointed. There was just so much he
was trying to articulate, and so little time in one conversation, speech, or
interview.
But I recall one conversation with Brent Sherwood, a space architect
now at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who really does see the big
picture. My dad had an incomprehensibly complex diagram of how
humans could get from where they were to Mars. Reasonably intelligent
people could disagree over many of the points in the diagram. And they
did. But afterward Brent told me that, despite his technical differences,
“it all hangs together.” And he went on to say that Buzz may be the only
person who has all of the pieces to the puzzle.
This book is the first time my father has attempted to put the entire
puzzle together in one place.
My dad has spent a great deal of time conversing about space with
many people. This book is a continuation of that tradition. The basis of
these chapters began with the 40 years of publications, interviews, and
presentations my dad has made. Many of these have been carefully
collected by the people who work closely with my dad. A special
mention should be made of the work Christina Korp and Rob Varnas
have done in collecting and organizing the considerable library of my
father’s works.
But the real heart of this book is a series of conversations between my
dad, Leonard David, and me over the better part of 2012, all dedicated
to the writing of this book. These conversations have been wide ranging,
incredibly insightful, entertaining, frustrating, enlightening, and
hopelessly disorganized. It is a testament to Leonard’s perseverance that
he has been able to organize the discussions into an entirely coherent
manuscript which, I believe, offers the clearest, most comprehensive
account of my father’s views on spaceflight.
The book begins with a brief account of my father’s flight on Air Force
One on the day that U.S. President Barack Obama made his only major
speech on space. My dad was more than just a passenger that day. For
the past year he had been working tirelessly, refining concepts for space
exploration programs, making speeches on space exploration, testifying
before space commissions and Congress. My proudest moment was
watching his speech at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space
Museum on the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. That speech laid
out succinctly his vision for the future of human space development and
exploration.
This book serves to further that vision.
Space exploration has never been a purely technical enterprise for my
father. While the lessons of Apollo are legion, none has made a greater
impression on him than the power of the commitment of an American
President. John F. Kennedy’s speech declaring a clear and compelling
goal for space exploration forever changed the course of human history.
So, in any conversation with him about the long-term future of human
exploration, you will inevitably find yourself discussing space in terms of
four-year electoral cycles. Much as you must have a progression of
technical development, my father recognizes that there must be a
progression of political decisions, supported by sound policy analyses.
In the second chapter, he calls for a recommitment to U.S. space
leadership via his Unified Space Vision. To support this, he would like to
see the formation of a permanent senior executive, nongovernmental
advisory group he calls the United Strategic Space Enterprise.
A long time before it became fashionable, my dad was an unstinting
advocate for private space travel. In large part this is because he
recognizes the importance of creating large, sustainable markets for