I wanted to read this book by Buzz Aldrin with Leonard David because I find myself becoming disenchanted with the idea of colonizing Mars.  Exploring Mars sounds exciting, and robotic missions are producing great results, but I don’t think I want to move to Mars.  I haven’t found a reason why I would want to become a subsistence farmer on Mars constantly on the edge of starvation, suffocation, freezing, and radiation injury, all while living in a tiny box with practically no privacy.  Would there really be any time to explore?

Lots of people disagree with my dismal assessment, including Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon.  He writes that “humanity is destined to explore, settle, and expand outward into the universe.”  Aldrin’s book includes some autobiographical information as well as his vision for the future.  There are over eighty illustrations and an appendix that lays out the timeline of past US space policy.  Aldrin is conversational and sometimes repetitive.  He does not present a tightly constructed argument or a highly technical discussion.  This book will not tell you how microwaves transmitted from the moon to Earth will be transmogrified into electricity, or what a solar electric propulsion system actually is, although these technologies are mentioned.

Aldrin includes some reminiscences about the Apollo program that I enjoyed reading.  I love this quote:  “One of the strangest sensations I recall is the smell of the moon.  Lunar dust [carried into the lander on space suits] had a definite odor, like burnt charcoal.”

Aldrin is concerned with the political and financial side of space travel as well as with technology.  While I think the technology is more fun, without the practical side there will be no missions, so this is an important topic.  He worries that the old standby aerospace contractors “are far from truthful” and may push old technology “that keeps popping up out of the casket” for short-term profit.  Aldrin wants to see a free market space industry evolve, including tourism.  He thinks international cooperation is important, perhaps modeled on exploration of Antarctica, and that any wasteful space-race should be avoided.

Aldrin’s vision is incremental.  His plan includes practical, profit-making missions to the moon, and exploration and ultimately manipulation of Near Earth Objects to enhance our survivability on Earth.  He quotes science fiction author Larry Niven as saying “the dinosaurs became extinct because they didn’t have a space program.”

Next we would set up exploration bases on the moons of Mars, which would use rovers with radically new designs from wind-powered “tumble-weeds” to balloons and aircraft.  These rovers would be “telerobotic” or “telepresent”, so astronauts could directly experience the crafts they control.  Other spacecraft would cycle on an endless circuit, taking from two and a half to four years per loop, between Earth and Mars.  Ultimately, permanent colonies would be established on Mars.  Aldrin does not provide solutions to the concerns I expressed above for colonists, except to say people have been willing to suffer for exploration in the past.

It is amazing to realize that a man born shortly after Black Tuesday started the Great Depression has walked on the moon and now plans for colonists to live on Mars.  This is an easily read, thought-provoking book.  But I still have trouble imagining myself as a colonist on Mars (what do you say when your kid wants to know why you condemned him to live on Mars?)