Buzz Aldrin looks to the future and not to the back. He planned to involve NASA in

Just after this year's Memorial Day, I began talking regularly with the pilot of the first spacecraft to land on the moon. We had already spoken, but it was different, it seemed that urgent. Every week or two weeks, Buzz Aldrin telephoned to discuss his frustration with the state of NASA and his concerns about the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, without lack of perceptible progress.

Even at age 89, Aldrin remains remarkably engaged in the aerospace community, often attending meetings and conferences without notice. Aldrin asks questions. He talks to the directors. Over the last two years, the aerospace legend has been presented to the White House following important space announcements by President Trump, served as advisor to the National Council of Space and supported the goal of the White House to return to the Moon by 2024.

But what NASA has done to return, for almost 20 years, has not worked. President Bush sent NASA back to the moon more than 15 years ago. In one form or another, NASA has spent billions of dollars each year to build a big and heavy spaceship as well as a bigger and much heavier rocket. return. Along the way, NASA has enriched half a dozen major aerospace subcontractors and made Congress happy. But the space agency still can not launch its own astronauts into a low Earth orbit, let alone deep space or the Moon.

"I remember that in mind," Aldrin told Ars. "We fumbled for a very long time. There must be a better way to do things. And I think I found it.

He realizes that with Apollo's big birthday on July 20, this could be one of his last chances to change things. You do not hit a golden anniversary once, and then go. And soon, soon enough, you are too. So Buzz Aldrin would like to draw attention to this point and hopes to be able to move NASA forward. He wants NASA to stop trying to repeat the Apollo program of the past and embrace the future of spaceflight.

While we spoke late May and June, I simply took notes. Aldrin did not talk to me, after all, he was trying to talk to the world.

Only a few

Only a dozen humans came out of a spaceship to get to the surface of another world and two-thirds of them left. Neil Armstrong, Aldrin's partner for Apollo 11, died in 2012. Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, Jim Irwin, John Young and Gene Cernan also left. Most of them died incredulously – how, they wondered, had the mighty legacy they had left dissipated like a rocket trail scattered in the wind?

Of those who remain, Aldrin is the oldest. Dave Scott, Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt are all about 80 years old. There is no guarantee that they will be alive on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Apollo 11.

To his credit, the Trump administration gave NASA a sense of urgency in setting the landing target at 2024. In response, NASA proposed the Artemis program, a 37-launcher campaign that culminates with the beginning of a lunar base in a decade. Although the political relevance of this plan raises serious questions, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin is more concerned about technical issues.

NASA has spent $ 50 billion on the construction of the Orion Probe, the Space Launch System rocket and related exploration vehicles over the past 15 years. Orion is a powerful space capsule capable, but it is also massive, weighing 26 tons with its service module and large heat shield. For each Artemis mission, NASA proposes to launch this mass up to the Moon and vice versa. At least Orion is reusable; On the other hand, the large consumable SLS rocket will cost more than $ 1.5 billion per flight and will require a permanent army of contractors just to keep supply lines open, at most, for just one mission per year.

Despite all the time and money invested in SLS and Orion, these vehicles do not have the energy needed to perform a low lunar orbit mission and return. Indeed, the Orion Engine service module receives less than a third of the thrust of the Apollo propulsion system that sent Aldrin to the Moon in 1969. It's one of the best of the main reasons why NASA intends to build a lunar gateway – a small space station – a distant orbit around the moon. From there, the bridge will not approach more than 1,000 km from the lunar surface and will spend much of its seven-day orbit much further.

"One of the things that surprises me is the lack of performance," said Aldrin, referring to these vehicles long since developed by NASA. "This forces NASA to enter this strange orbit. And how long will SLS last until Blue Origin or SpaceX replaces it? Not long. How long does this heavy Orion spaceship, with a malnourished European service module, in the inventory? Not long."