Forget The Moon, Let's Go To Mars

Apollo 11 veterans Neil Armstrong, Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin and Michael Collins think that NASA shouldn't become bogged down by a return visit to the moon, but instead head for our nearest planetary neighbour: Mars.

Command module pilot Collins, who circled the moon whilst Armstrong and Aldrin walked upon its surface, said to a packed crowd at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, ""Sometimes I think I flew to the wrong place. Mars was always my favourite as a kid and it still is today. I'd like to see Mars become the focus, just as John F. Kennedy focused on the moon."

In an incredibly rare public appearance, the crew of Apollo 11 spoke on the eve of the 40th anniversary of man landing on the moon, not about the past, but about the future.

Neil Armstrong, who famously shuns the media and rarely does public appearances, only discussed his famous exploits for a few seconds choosing instead to give a lecture titled "Goddard, governance and geophysics".

His colleague, Buzz Aldrin said the best way to honour the achievements of the Apollo program, ""is to follow in our footsteps; to boldly go again on a new mission of exploration."

The second man on the moon then presented a slide detailing how NASA could use the moon as a stepping stone to visit the Martian moon Phobos and the planet itself.

He added the astounding fact, that he and Armstrong landed on the moon 66 years after the Wright brothers first flew their airplane. For humanity to land on Mars 66 years after their flight would mean for us to put a man on the moon by 2035.

Currently, NASA is still marching toward a goal of returning to the moon and constructing a base there to use as a stop gap on the way to Mars. The current plan is based on building new rockets that the former NASA administrator called "Apollo on steroids."

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