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Mission To Mars My Vision for Space Exploration
Buzz Aldrin
National Geographic, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4262-1017-4 |
Such a grandiose title promised to deliver novel insight into a reasonable strategy to reach the planet Mars within our lifetime. Unfortunately (but perhaps expectedly), we only get superficial plans and lofty ideas that are of marginal value to the reader. Indeed, some of the companies highlighted, which were working on producing new technologies to conquer deep space, have already gone bust, and many of the proposed dates for exploratory missions have come and gone; underscoring the immense difficulties that lie ahead. Whilst the author foresaw a successful manned trip to Mars by the 2030's, I think it is more realistic to argue that this might happen by the end of the century. There are simply too many challenges (technical, biological, financial and sociopolitical) to overcome in the two decades spanning the book's publication to the proposed Mars trip. It is laudable that the author is so optimistic, but regrettably he comes across like a high school student (naively unaware of the complexities of large scale projects) writing a well thought out school report, but ultimately lacking in any real substance. And one last consideration: although this book appears to be authored by astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the back flap reveals the identity of a co-author (Leonard David), which strongly suggests this book was inspired, but not written by Aldrin directly. What a shame as one of the ultimate values of a book is to hear the voice of the author, not a translation by a ghost writer.
