Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon on Apollo 11, has been at the forefront of space and science news the last few days. The 83-year-old former astronaut has been quite vocal in support of a Moon base, human visits to Mars (while supporting his new book), and now for a disparaging, if joking, comment about Tang.
Aldrin's conversations about the colonization of space are not just the general moral support that you might hear from any astronaut. Nor are they fantastic out-of-this world visions of some utopian dreamer. Some of the ideas that Aldrin is proposing would propel the human race forward by several decades, but the means to do so are attainable.
The legendary space traveler has proposed the development of a lunar version of the International Space Station (ISS) called the International Lunar Development Corporation (ILDC). Such a facility would encourage all space programs to develop the means to slowly bring men and women to the Moon.
"I call for an international effort to further explore and utilize the Moon. It would be a partnership that involves commercial enterprise and other nations building upon the Apollo legacy," Aldrin wrote in a New York Times editorial.
After the Moon, Aldrin imagines the human race creating a permanent base on Mars in the next 25 years. This move, he argues, will make our species nearly extinction-proof. As opposed to the get-there-quick approach taken by NASA during the 1960's, Aldrin's call for long-term colonization of the Moon and Mars will emphasize re-usability of machines.
His dream of the future of space travel are chronicled in his new book, Mission to Mars:My Vision for Space Exploration.
Not all of Buzz Aldrin's comments are being received with acceptance, however, especially when it comes to Tang. At the Guy's Choice Awards sponsored by Spike TV on June 8, the former moon walker said "Tang sucks," causing a flurry of controversy on the internet and television. He later stated that his comment about the drink, long associated with astronauts, was a joke.
"The myth... is that Tang was developed for the space program. The actual truth is [that] General Foods was making its travel drink mix and NASA thought, 'Oh, this is how we should be flying our beverages.' So we purchased the already made and commercially available product," Michele Perchonok, NASA's manager of the Space Food Systems Laboratory, said.
Buzz Aldrin is becoming a media darling, although he was not always so quotable. While everyone remembers Neil Armstrong's "One small step..." comment when he first stepped onto the Moon, few remember Alrdin's first words. They were "Looks like the secondary strut had a little thermal effects on it right here, Neil."
