Mission to Mars Quotes

“In January 2004 President George W. Bush put NASA in high gear, heading back to the moon with a space vision that was to have set in motion future exploration of Mars and other destinations. The Bush space policy focused on U.S. astronauts first returning to the moon as early as 2015 and no later than 2020. Portraying the moon as home to abundant resources, President Bush did underscore the availability of raw materials that might be harvested and processed into rocket fuel or breathable air. “We can use our time on the moon to develop and test new approaches and technologies and systems that will allow us to function in other, more challenging, environments. The moon is a logical step toward further progress and achievement,” he remarked in rolling out his space policy. To fulfill the Bush space agenda required expensive new rockets—the Ares I launcher and the large, unfunded Ares V booster—plus a new lunar module, all elements of the so-called Constellation Program. The Bush plan forced retirement of the space shuttle in 2010 to pay for the return to the moon, but there were other ramifications as well. Putting the shuttle out to pasture created a large human spaceflight gap in reaching the International Space Station. The price tag for building the station is roughly $100 billion, and without the space shuttle, there’s no way to reach it without Russian assistance. In the end, the stars of the Constellation Program were out of financial alignment. It was an impossible policy to implement given limited NASA money.”
― Buzz Aldrin, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration

“Let me hypothesize a political scenario on the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’ s landing on the moon, in 2019. The U.S. President, whoever that may be, takes the opportunity to direct the future of human space exploration, pioneered by Americans, by stating in a speech: “I believe that this nation should commit itself, within two decades, to establish permanence on the planet Mars.”
― Buzz Aldrin, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration

“By the way, while Neil was the first human to step onto the moon, I’m the first alien from another world to enter a spacecraft that was going to Earth.”
― Buzz Aldrin, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration

“The airless moon receives more than 13,000 terawatts of solar power. Harnessing just one percent of that sunlight could satisfy Earth’s power needs. Criswell”
― Buzz Aldrin, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration

“My father, Edwin Eugene Aldrin, was an engineer and an aviation pioneer—and a friend of Charles Lindbergh and Orville Wright.”
― Buzz Aldrin, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration

“I have a message in a time bottle for the candidate who wins the 2016 election for the U.S. presidency. There’s opportunity to make a bold statement on the occasion of the July 2019 50th anniversary of the first humans to land on the moon: “I believe this nation should commit itself, within two decades, to commencing American permanence on the planet Mars.”
― Buzz Aldrin, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration

“Phobos is the innermost moon of Mars, only 16.7 miles (26.9 kilometers) in diameter but the larger of the two moons. Diminutive Deimos is a little over 7 miles (11 kilometers) in breadth. Scientifically, both Martian moons are oddballs. There is continual dispute as to where they came from. Just how did they get there? Conjecture about them being captured asteroids or cogenerated with Mars is debatable. These two objects are a cosmic detective story, and we need more clues to sort out their true nature. Years ago I stirred up a little more than Phobos dust by calling attention to a strange feature spotted on that moon. I termed this oddity a monolith, a very unusual structure. While there are those who view it as a large, rectangular boulder, visiting Phobos can categorize this curious creation, put there by the universe, or God if you prefer.”
― Buzz Aldrin, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration