Buzz Aldrin

Timing has always been a key element in my life. I have been blessed to have been in the right place at the right time.

My expertise is the space program and what it should be in the future based on my experience of looking at the transitions that we've made between pre-Sputnik days and getting to the moon.

There's a need for accepting responsibility - for a person's life and making choices that are not just ones for immediate short-term comfort. You need to make an investment, and the investment is in health and education.

The pilgrims on the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock. To my knowledge, they didn't wait around for a return trip to Europe. You settle some place with a purpose. If you don't want to do that, stay home. You avoid an awful lot of risks by not venturing outward.

Going back to the moon is not visionary in restoring space leadership for America. Like its Apollo predecessor, it will prove to be a dead end littered with broken spacecraft, broken dreams and broken policies.

I'm not in favor of just taking short-term isolated situations and depleting our resources to keep our climate just the way it is today.

I remember it was hard to believe that I was taking a step onto the lunar surface.

You can never tell when a commercial space venture will suddenly become viable.

Exploring Mars is a far different venture from Apollo expeditions to the moon; it necessitates leaving our home planet on lengthy missions with a constrained return capability.

The big companies are the private industry. But they're faced with a short-term need to show a profit in short-term.

Extraordinary observations require extraordinary evidence.

Mars has been flown by, orbited, smacked into, radar inspected, and rocketed onto, as well as bounced upon, rolled over, shoveled, drilled into, baked, and even laser blasted.