ALDRIN’S CASTLE
Travelling to Mars could be dangerous and uncomfortable, but Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin has a plan to do it in style
When Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in1969, many at NASA felt there was a good chance they’d be landing astronauts on Mars by 1984. But government priorities changed, and the only part of NASA’s grand exploration plan to come to fruition was the Space Shuttle, which taxied astronauts to the International Space Station and no further. Both George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush tried to recapture the spirit, pitching missions to the Red Planet that would have arrived in 2018, but these never became a reality.
All of these plans and expectations floundered as budgets were cut, and the long build-up for a Mars mission struggled to maintain government support. Now at last the fourth rock from the Sun feels within reach, with NASA working hard on a return to the Moon and a Mars landing in the 2030s with the help of European Space Agency (ESA) participation. And with SpaceX’s extraordinary progress on its Starship craft that’s looking likely to beat NASA, humankind could arrive on Martian soil during the 2020s.