Buzz Plan goes to Moon first

William Atkins
Saturday, 16 October 2010 23:15

Science - Space

Are politics playing into the long-term plans of NASA? Buzz Aldrin, the second human to walk on the Moon, thinks it is a possibility. And says why he thinks so as the mid-term elections approach in the United States.

Buzz Aldrin wonders if a better plan (I informally call it the Buzz Plan) for NASA's long-term human exploration goals would be to establish a permanent lunar base on the Moon, first, then go to asteroids, comets, and then to the planet Mars.

According to the October 15, 2010 Fox News article 'Why Mars? Buzz Aldrin Wants a Lunar Base First' Buzz Aldrin, former Apollo astronaut,is quoted: "In the bigger picture, there seems to be a lot of contention as we approach the midterm elections.'

Buzz adds, '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."

The Fox News article also quotes Greg Allison, who is the executive vice president of the National Space Society and a contractor for NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center (Huntsville, Alabama).

Allison states, "Going to Mars requires an infrastructure in space. That's where a moon base would come in."

From this information, one could conclude that both men agree we should go to Mars, only we should go to the Moon, first, in order to: (1) establish ourselves on another celestial body, (2) practice missions to Mars on bodies that are much closer to Earth (the Moon is only days away, not months like Mars), (3) use all of knowledge and expertise we've already accumulated to establish ourselves as a space-faring world, before sending astronauts on a year-plus journey to Mars, and (4) make sure we have all of our ducks all in a row (that is, establish a detailed plan on how we're going to do this, to make sure it will work within the time frame defined).

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