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A review by abdiel47
Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration by Leonard David, Buzz Aldrin
2.0
I have a fascination with Mars. From Dante’s mystical forays to Kim Stanley Robinson’s terraforming epics, from Burroughs’ pulp to Bradbury’s poetry, I can’t get enough. If the government’s going to spend money on space exploration, it should be with an eye to create a self sustaining colony on Mars. Anything short of that is a failure. I believe solely focusing on unmanned space exploration will lead to waning public interest and minimal funding. The trickle of data will slowly decrease. Scientists may be able to use it to find out a bunch of cool stuff, but it will be increasingly esoteric to the average Joe. We recently did a Pluto fly by, but popular culture has already moved on.
Of course, manned space exploration doesn’t guarantee public interest either. Space has got to be relatively easy and accessible and then it can be profitable. Getting to that point is not easy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it never happened. But, oh, how I wish it would!
If a pep talk about going to Mars is what you need then Aldrin’s Mission to Mars is the book for you. Unfortunately that’s about all it provides. It’s haphazard, scattershot, poorly organized, and poorly argued. It’s three parts raw enthusiasm, two parts self aggrandizement, with a few interesting ideas sprinkled in for flavor.
Among the latter are the “Aldrin Cycler” system of space ships. These are perpetually orbiting ships that never stop. You’d take a shuttle out to the cycler as it comes close to Earth and ride it to Mars. Once there you’d hop off onto a similar shuttle and the cycler continues on it’s way back to Earth.
The other cool idea is his approach to going back to the Moon. In short, he argues that other countries should do that. Instead the US should focus on developing the cycler technology within the Earth-Moon system, and otherwise develop infrastructure — communication satellites, Earth-Moon Lagrange point space stations and fuel depots, etc. — and exchange usage of these resources with other countries that want to develop a presence on the moon. Once the technology is developed we expand it to Earth-asteroid and Earth-Mars systems.
In my opinion the notion that there will be any kind of return on investment on space exploration in the near future has to be abandoned. If space ever becomes profitable it will be a long time from now and will require mining mineral rich asteroids (keep in mind that a space windfall on iron, gold and other valuable resources would decimate the mining economy on Earth) and Helium-3 mining for fusion purposes. But that is dependent on actually creating a viable Helium-3 fusion technology first.
In that sense I think the book is misleading when it comes to economic opportunities.
Mars won’t be a financially profitable excursion. We won’t find extraterrestrial life there. We should go to Mars purely for the thrill of the technical challenge involved. And if we don’t find that challenge worth pursuing, get used to terra firma, because we’ll never leave.
I’ve heard Zubrin’s books about Mars are better. I need to give them a try.
Of course, manned space exploration doesn’t guarantee public interest either. Space has got to be relatively easy and accessible and then it can be profitable. Getting to that point is not easy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it never happened. But, oh, how I wish it would!
If a pep talk about going to Mars is what you need then Aldrin’s Mission to Mars is the book for you. Unfortunately that’s about all it provides. It’s haphazard, scattershot, poorly organized, and poorly argued. It’s three parts raw enthusiasm, two parts self aggrandizement, with a few interesting ideas sprinkled in for flavor.
Among the latter are the “Aldrin Cycler” system of space ships. These are perpetually orbiting ships that never stop. You’d take a shuttle out to the cycler as it comes close to Earth and ride it to Mars. Once there you’d hop off onto a similar shuttle and the cycler continues on it’s way back to Earth.
The other cool idea is his approach to going back to the Moon. In short, he argues that other countries should do that. Instead the US should focus on developing the cycler technology within the Earth-Moon system, and otherwise develop infrastructure — communication satellites, Earth-Moon Lagrange point space stations and fuel depots, etc. — and exchange usage of these resources with other countries that want to develop a presence on the moon. Once the technology is developed we expand it to Earth-asteroid and Earth-Mars systems.
In my opinion the notion that there will be any kind of return on investment on space exploration in the near future has to be abandoned. If space ever becomes profitable it will be a long time from now and will require mining mineral rich asteroids (keep in mind that a space windfall on iron, gold and other valuable resources would decimate the mining economy on Earth) and Helium-3 mining for fusion purposes. But that is dependent on actually creating a viable Helium-3 fusion technology first.
In that sense I think the book is misleading when it comes to economic opportunities.
Mars won’t be a financially profitable excursion. We won’t find extraterrestrial life there. We should go to Mars purely for the thrill of the technical challenge involved. And if we don’t find that challenge worth pursuing, get used to terra firma, because we’ll never leave.
I’ve heard Zubrin’s books about Mars are better. I need to give them a try.