Forty years ago, on July 20, 1969, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the first ever human steps on the moon. EarthSky asked astronaut Buzz Aldrin what he remembers most about it.
Buzz Aldrin: The entire experience was the culmination of just a very fortunate set of circumstances that opened up for us, plus seven plus nine plus 14 in our third group of astronauts, 30 people were destined to be among those selected to maybe make the first landing on the moon.
An estimated 500 million people on television and more on radio tuned in for live broadcasts of Armstrong and Aldrin from the moon. Today, Aldrin urges the U.S. to help other nations like China, India, South Korea, and Brazil to reach the moon, and for the U.S. to send its astronauts to Mars.
Buzz Aldrin: What we challenged ourselves to do in a confrontational situation of the ’60s and ’70s, in expanding the horizons of human exploration, we can challenge ourselves to do during this period of brief recession, discouragement, as a nation and as a world, we can challenge ourselves to do great things again by joining forces, cooperatively, with patience and perseverance, but setting our objectives high and helping other people to join us in the quest for human expansion of our thinking, of our capabilities.
Astronaut Aldrin talked more about his path to the moon.
Buzz Aldrin: What a wonderful opportunity that came along. And the program just proceeded so well overcoming little setbacks, the tragedy of the Apollo fire, loss of a few astronauts, aircraft accidents. But we were really responsive, went to the moon on Apollo 8 without a lander, pioneering December, 1968 really sparking a positive event during that turbulent year, setting the stage. Neal and I were in the backup crew for that great mission. And three missions later we’re on the primary crew to make the first attempt at landing on the moon.
Buzz told EarthSky his vision for the future of space exploration.
Buzz Aldrin: I think that we need to develop the tools to develop what we have explored and to help other nations to participate in cooperative endeavors, not just the space station that the United States invested significantly in, but to use that to prepare for things that we haven’t done yet, and to go places that we haven’t been, while we help international, cooperative space station efforts expanded with other nations.
Aldrin also spoke about the possibility of a human settlement on Mars in the future.
Buzz Aldrin: We could put our exploration modules by 2022 perhaps on the moon Phobos of the planet Mars. We could put that exploration module there landing, and enhance it in an unmanned capacity so we could visit it in 2025 or so for visits that will help us prepare the Martian surface for the arrival of settlers sometime in the early 2030s. It’s a little more than two decades away, and I think that’s a very rewarding gradual commitment of our resources.
Buzz also talked about his latest efforts to reach new ears, through collaborating on a rap video with Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli.
Buzz Aldrin: What that was like was a tremendously new and different opportunity to communicate with a generation that is significantly different than the generation that grew up to support the great Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. The people of the new generation who are into rap music and communication by text messages and twittering, this is the generation of the expansion of information sharing and worldwide methods, and it was just a wonderful experience to share the ‘rocket experience’ rap music with Snoop Dogg and Kweli, and to discuss and get their benefits and their pointers on how I can improve my methods in communicating in these modern ways.
Our thanks to Buzz Aldrin.
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong landed their lunar module on the Sea of Tranquility and became the first humans to walk on the moon. Aldrin has since been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and more than fifty other awards and medals from the United States and other countries. He holds a doctorate in astronautics from MIT. Since retiring from the U.S. Air Force and NASA, Dr. Aldrin has remained at the forefront of efforts to ensure a continued leading role for America in manned space exploration. He founded a rocket design company, Starcraft Boosters, Inc., and the ShareSpace Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to opening the doors to space tourism for all people. Buzz and his wife, Lois, live in Los Angeles.
Would you please stop lying about landing on the moon. You did not land on the moon. You did not walk on the moon. You did not admit you landed or walked on the moon. You were given a script to follow with the help of Hollywood, the Kennedy’s and technology to doop the public. I frankly find that at your age you would admit the truth at some point before you die. The space programs will continue even when you do admit the truth. I find it deplorable that men like you will do anything for wealth, status and fame at the expense of others. The lies told to keep the space program afloat may have been necessary to gain the public support of the uneducated but I don’t think it is necessary anymore. Now that the heads of the Kennedy clan have all died off do you still fear for your life and livelyhood? Make a clean break and die with a clear conscience. Man UP.
D.R. McAuliffe, i do not understand how you can be so absolutely certain of your theory. You may have interpretations of some evidence, and theories that support your interpretations, but certainty is clearly inappropriate. I suspect that, by now, you may be so invested in your theory that you may be totally incommunicable on this subject, in terms of reception to alternate theories. It is interesting that this stone-like closedness is exactly what you expect from, in this case, Mr. Aldrin. It is said that people see the world, not as it is, but as THEY are.
Best wishes.
Although I have the greatest respect and admiration for Buzz Aldrin and his enthusiasm for space exploration he may be stuck in the ideas of the 60′s. The concept of a base on the moon and a manned flight to Mars was developed in that period of the moon landings. In my opinion because we had not yet developed the concept or technology for unmanned spacecraft.
It was brought up again during the run amok capitalism decade of the Bush years, when unregulated capitalism was the law and no limit on blowing the publics money for the benefit of the capitalist with as little benefit to the paying public as possible and with little regard as to the consequences as long as a few were making a lot of money without oversight and little regualtion. Which got us into the Iraq war and the current world wide recession.
This is the era of unmanned robots or unmanned spacecraft. Although I believe that knowledge is priceless, I also believe that the paying public, which is funding the space program, deserves the most for the least amount of money, which is unmanned flights, which the Mars rovers, landers and satellites have demonstrated.
His flights to the moon took about three days to get there but to get to other planets would take much, much longer and because the spacecraft would be manned the cost would be, well, astronomical.
Aside from all the water, air and food and all the extra space required for people there is the problem of the lack of gravity, which I believe is a great problem with prolonged manned space flights. In my opinion we should not get into prolonged manned space flight until we develop something liken to Von Braun’s wheel, not only for spaceships but also space stations.
I am not against manned space flights throughout the solar system and beyond, in fact I believe it is out destiny, if we live that long, but now is not the time.
I f corporations have reason to be on the moon then let them pay for it, which I don’t believe they would, because it is unlikely that anything could be mined on the moon and brought back to earth at a cost less than it could be done on earth. A base on the moon is also economically infeasible. Flights there would be economically prohibitively expensive, and it would take many, and contrary to the current hype, would not be able to support it’s self, and then again there is the problem of greatly reduced gravity.
Again, I am all for space exploration and the knowledge we have gained is priceless but let us do it with cost verses benefit in mind and not jump into a costly venture just because some contractors can make billions of dollars, our dollars..
However, should the mission be launched I would follow it just as intently as the rest of us.
As to those that do not believe that man has been on the moon, I can tell you that during the Apollo missions some laser mirrors were placed on the moon for the purpose of measuring the distance from the moon to the earth. A laser beam is shot from earth and the time it takes to reflect from these mirrors and return is calculated and it was determined that indeed the moons orbit is increasing, and these mirrors are still being used to this day.
Well, I agree… DR mc Auliffe, you shouldn’t be so sure of yourself. If you are able to say that Aldrin should die with a clear conscience, why not you too? I know there are probably millions of others out there who think like you, but bear in mind that you MAY be blaming someone for something they didn’t do. I mean, is that hypocritical?
So why not die with a clear conscience?