Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, wants us to go to Mars:
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin wants to see people living on Mars as soon as possible. And he thinks it can be done, he said Thursday at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, where a new exhibit was unveiled featuring the Gemini 12 spacecraft in which Aldrin and James Lovell spent nearly four days — when Aldrin wasn’t outside it on spacewalks — 40 years ago.
“Mars is more habitable than any other place in the solar system. It’s got the potential for off-planet survival of the species,” Aldrin said. “Sooner or later we’ll establish the beginnings of a settlement there.”
Hopefully sooner.
The “Space Race” was arguably a legitimate public good during the Cold War (i.e., as part of our national defense). There is no comparable justification today.
To Mars? By all means … but without taxpayers footing the bill.
I hope to be on one of the first boats off this rock.
Kip,
I find myself agreeing with Brad.
If humanity doesn’t find a way to get its collective ass off this planet, the long-term future seems grim indeed.
Things seem to have gotten hijacked during the 1970s. Now we’re even more overpeopled and caught up in more and more domestic issues.