Slashdot | Buzz Aldrin's Radical Plan For NASA

[Paul D. Fernhout]

http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/06/26/0410259/Buzz-Aldrins-Radical-Plan-For-NASA
"Apollo 11 astronaut (and MIT Astronautics Sc.D.) Buzz Aldrin suggests a
bolder plan for NASA (while still remaining within its budget), which he
will present to the White House's Augustine Commission; he sees NASA heading
down the wrong path with a "rehash of what we did 40 years ago" which could
derail future exploration and settlement. For the short-term, Aldrin
suggests canceling NASA's troubled and increasingly costly Ares I, instead
launching manned capsules on commercial Delta IV, Atlas V, and/or SpaceX
Falcon 9 rockets. In the medium-term, NASA should return to the moon with an
international consortium, with the ultimate goal of commercial lunar
exploitation in mind. Aldrin's long term plan includes a 2018 comet flyby, a
2019 manned trip to a near-earth asteroid, a 2025 trip to the Martian moon
Phobos, and one-way trips to colonize Mars."

Embedded links:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4322647.html?page=1
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/hsf/home/index.html

--Paul Fernhout
http://www.openvirgle.net/