No, Buzz has never been to Mars, but he has been thinking about it. The second man to walk on the Moon had an idea of a space taxi service that would cycle continuously around the two planets, allowing supplies and people to be ferried back and forth.
It started off as a way to cheaply reach the Moon. He was asked to look at the same thing for Mars and he did. His method used gravity to power the trip using space craft that would be re-used. As the craft passed by, you would simply send a rocket up to meet it, dock with it, refuel, recharge and pass cargo or passengers and then disengage, letting it continue on it's cycle. Five months later, the craft passes Mars and the same process occurs - you intercept, unload, reload, etc, and it continues back to Earth.
This method, called the Aldrin Mars Cycler, was confirmed as achievable in the 1980's. In Buzz's eyes Astronauts that visit Mars ought to stay there for at least five years and with this kind of cheap (relatively speaking) method of transporting supplies, perhaps stay there for the rest of their lives. He thinks that we could have a person on Mars by 2030.
No comments:
Post a Comment