I think we need to move to the moons of Mars and learn how to control robots that are on the surface. It's not the impatient way of getting there, but Mars has been there a long time.
Let's not spend resources that we don't need to be sending astronauts back to the moon. Let's not spend expensive resources on bringing people who have reached Mars back again. Prepare them to become a growing colony.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of utilizing resources effectively for space exploration and colonization rather than reverting to past missions.
Buzz Aldrin advocates for a paradigm shift in space exploration by suggesting we should focus on establishing a sustainable human colony on Mars rather than redirecting funds and efforts towards returning to the Moon or bringing astronauts back from Mars. This perspective highlights the need for a forward-thinking approach to resource allocation in the continued exploration of space, ensuring that humanity can thrive beyond Earth.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a conference on space exploration strategies, this quote could be used to discuss the future of human settlement on Mars.
More from Buzz Aldrin
All quotes →America can take man to the moon, and America can take men to Mars - and beyond.
A hybrid human-robot mission to investigate an asteroid affords a realistic opportunity to demonstrate new technological capabilities for future deep-space travel and to test spacecraft for long-duration spaceflight.
Landing in the ocean and waiting for the Navy to come alongside and haul you out of the drink is what space capsules require. And after the capsule is recovered, it would take weeks for the ship to return to port.
The biggest benefit of Apollo was the inspiration it gave to a growing generation to get into science and aerospace.
Unfortunately, kids are led to believe things are easier to achieve than they really are.
Similar quotes
Science is rooted in the will to truth. With the will to truth it stands or falls. Lower the standard even slightly and science becomes diseased at the core. Not only science, but man. The will to truth, pure and unadulterated, is among the essential conditions of his existence; if the standard is compromised he easily becomes a kind of tragic caricature of himself.
If we could honestly promise young couples that we knew how to give them offspring with superior character, why should we assume they would decline? Common sense tells us that if scientists find ways to greatly improve human capabilities, there will no stopping the public from happily seizing them.
It's not going to be just humans colonizing space, it's going to be life moving out from the Earth, moving it into its kingdom. And the kingdom of life, of course, is going to be the universe.
The universe is almost like a huge magic trick and scientists are trying to figure out how it does what it does.
The history of the universe is, in effect, a huge and ongoing quantum computation. The universe is a quantum computer.
The cyclic universe theory predicts no gravitational waves from the early universe.