Astronaut Buzz Aldrin talks about life on Mars and how the UAE can help to make it happen

Buzz Aldrin on how humans can and should build settlements on Mars and how the UAE can tie-up with the US in space exploration.

The American astronaut Buzz Aldrin was the second man to set foot on the moon. Lee Hoagland / The National

The American astronaut Buzz Aldrin, 84, was the second man to set foot on the moon in July 20, 1969. This week he addressed delegates at Abu Dhabi’s Aerospace Summit and spoke to The National about how humans can and should build settlements on Mars and called for the UAE to tie-up with the US in space exploration.

Do you think humans can land on Mars?

It’s quite a bit different. It’s farther away. It’s easier to come back to the Earth than it is to land on Mars, because it’s low density. You need a lot to slow you down. You need a bigger parachute and you still need a rocket. This requires a lot of significant studies to find the best way to do this. It’s much more difficult. From my perspective it’s better to get the best companies we can – not just one, maybe two to help each other.

You mean companies to compete with Nasa?

Nasa is more the judge or the buyer. Sometimes it has the understanding and technology.

What do you think about space travel?

It will remain expensive. There are some major changes. Many people think it’s expensive if you bring something back, but that’s the only way if you keep throwing things away and if a spacecraft comes back. You can’t use it again if it gets in the ocean. Those are very expensive things to replace. If your purpose of going somewhere is not just to look around and come back home, but your purpose is to establish a colony in another location [then it makes sense]. When Columbus came across the ocean, he looked and he went back, but it wasn’t until ships brought people over. They didn’t expect to go back; they came to North America to stay.

Can the same happen in space?

If the purpose is just to go there. We went to the moon and we went to the moon and we went to the moon. We stopped going to the moon. The purpose was not to build up a settlement. I think a country, a nation, an organisation should not go to Mars, unless their intention is to stay. I am very serious about that. You should not consider doing something when your success is impossible. People don’t do impossible things. They don’t do things knowing that they will fail.

So settling in Mars, is funding the only issue?

No one will give you more money, unless you have a plan. You have an objective and you say: ‘I will do this in five years from now. Here’s my plan’. And to get this done you need finance. You need support. We can’t do what we want to do with the finances that we have now. We can talk about it and we can do things that are not good. We are just wasting money.

Is the competition between the US and Russia over Ukraine a revisit of the Cold War? Will Nasa be provoked if Russia takes action regarding landing on Mars?

There was a lot more than getting there before Russia. It was to say to the Americans that I have confidence in you, all of you. We will bet on you being able to do what we ask you do and they do that, everyone feels good about achieving.

We went around the world when we came back from the moon. You know what most of people said? They said: ‘We did it. The humanity did it.’ This is true; humanity does achieve things.

So the problem is funding?

If America partners with the UAE and we share investment in something – that would work fine. Then everyone wins. You can’t make everything. You can’t build all the rockets that you need here. But you can help with some of the things that helped to create wealth here in the past. Isn’t that oil? Who helped Arabs discover oil? So wealthy people here may help the future of going to Mars.

We need to come together. There’s a conference here. Do we talk Farsi here? No they talk English. We don’t speak Chinese. We don’t speak Russian. China and Russia come together, why? They don’t look alike. The writing is different, but they come together to object to what America wants to do. We need to come together, because we have democracies and we speak English. We live with freedom, liberty and democracy.

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