Aldrin is teaming up with Florida Institute of Technology to develop “a master plan” for colonizing Mars within 25 years. The moon astronaut took part in a signing ceremony at the university, near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The Buzz Aldrin Space Institute is set to open this fall.
The 85-year-old Aldrin, who followed Neil Armstrong on to the moon’s surface on 20 July 1969, will serve as a research professor of aeronautics as well as a senior faculty adviser for the institute. He said he hopes his “master plan” is accepted by Nasa and the country, with international input. Nasa is already working on the spacecraft and rockets to get astronauts to Mars by the mid-2030s.
Aldrin is pushing for a Mars settlement by approximately 2040. More specifically, he’s shooting for 2039, the 70th anniversary of his own Apollo 11 moon landing, although he admits the schedule is “adjustable”. He envisions using Mars’s moons, Phobos and Deimos, as preliminary stepping stones for astronauts. He said he dislikes the label “one-way” and imagines tours of duty lasting 10 years.
“The Pilgrims on the Mayflower came here to live and stay. They didn’t wait around Plymouth Rock for the return trip, and neither will people building up a population and a settlement” on Mars.