Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration
Since sharing the spotlight with Neil Armstrong during the first moon landing in 1969, Aldrin has made good use of his celebrity status to promote space exploration at every opportunity, appearing in films, lending his voice to a Simpsons episode, and even recording a rap song with Snoop Dogg to benefit his nonprofit foundation, ShareSpace. For his latest project, a book-length outline of, among other things, his vision for regular sojourns to Mars, Aldrin adopts a more sober tone. After a laudatory foreword by his son Andrew, Aldrin begins by calling for a new nongovernmental, U.S.-led space advisory group, then wholeheartedly endorses commercial space travel for paying passengers. He then lays out his blueprint for establishing a base on Mars involving a novel “flexible path” approach, with Mars’ moon Phobos as a docking station. No one will consider Aldrin a first-rate author, even with help from veteran journalist David, but his ideas are undeniably provocative and guaranteed to stir controversy among both amateur and professional space-travel enthusiasts. --Carl Hays