Buzz Aldrin's Radical Plan For NASA

FleaPlus writes "Apollo 11 astronaut (and MIT Astronautics Sc.D.) Buzz Aldrin suggests a bolder plan for NASA (while still remaining within its budget), which he will present to the White House's Augustine Commission; he sees NASA heading down the wrong path with a 'rehash of what we did 40 years ago' which could derail future exploration and settlement. For the short-term, Aldrin suggests canceling NASA's troubled and increasingly costly Ares I, instead launching manned capsules on commercial Delta IV, Atlas V, and/or SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. In the medium-term, NASA should return to the moon with an international consortium, with the ultimate goal of commercial lunar exploitation in mind. Aldrin's long term plan includes a 2018 comet flyby, a 2019 manned trip to a near-earth asteroid, a 2025 trip to the Martian moon Phobos, and one-way trips to colonize Mars."

Comments

No Australians on Mars...

[GrpA]

Yeah, a one-way ticket to colonise some other place...

We believed you the first time, when you said we were all "Criminals" and needed to be sent to Australia.

We're going to be a bit more suspicious when you start sending us to Mars though for the same reason...

And it won't be for stealing bread this time I bet... Probably for downloading music or similar.

GrpA

A space base on Phobos?

[Anonymous Coward]

We just go there and, like, build it on top of the anomaly?

Re:I hope this is the path NASA takes

[MaskedSlacker]

To have a viable colony you need about 50% of said volanteers be female

The history of European colonization says this is wrong, so long as the native Martians are attractive enough to rape.

Re:For the price of "setting foot on Mars"

[amorsen]

beaming back terrabytes of data every second.

Aresbytes, not Terrabytes.

Re:for what purpose? To mess up the moon?

[catxk]

IT'S THE MOON. Jesus.

Re:for what purpose? To mess up the moon?

[Asclepius99]

Cheaper cheese.

Re:for what purpose? To mess up the moon?

[DoofusOfDeath]

IT'S THE MOON. Jesus.

You think Jesus didn't know that???

Re:Good ideas.

[Hognoxious]

It may be a long-term goal, but eventually we must send at least some people "off this rock".

You're proposing the mother of all offsite backups!

Re:Gravity wells

[camperdave]

Sustainable space stations... Didn't they do that in Disney's Wall-E?

How'd that turn out for them?

Don't answer that. I haven't seen it yet.

Re:Ummm... Yes?

[kubla2000]

Do we still need to think of the children now that Whacko Jacko is dead?

Re:Launchpad to the Belt.

[Sanat]

We (USA) and the Russians have had a spaceport on the moon since the 60's. It is just kept secret from the civilians. The little rover stuff is just a way to divert attention from what is really occurring.

By the way and along the same lines, we have had a space port on Mars since the 70's. It too is secret.

There is a lot of stuff that is kept from civilians and these two examples are typical of what humanity is unaware of that various nations are actively doing in the present moments.