Buzz Aldrin's Take On Space Policy

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin Calls for Continuing JFK Vision on 50th Anniversary of “Moon” Speech
“We should employ a ‘flexible path’ that utilizes the capabilities we develop for our longer-term goal to accomplish intermediate objectives along the way, such as: expanding our reach beyond low Earth orbit to provide access to our entire Earth-Moon system, as well as to special stable Sun-Earth orbital locations where orbiting science observatories will peer back in time to the very origins of the universe. We will also conduct missions to asteroids, comets and near-Earth Crossing Objects, that may one day pose a threat to Earth – perhaps exploiting their resources to sustain our presence in space, as we seek to understand their origins and the history of our solar system, and develop the ability to counter their potential threat to Earth. … With regard to returning to the moon, we should not reengage in a second ‘Moon Race’. We won that race more than forty-years ago, and there is no compelling reason to forgo our longer-term goal of permanent human presence on Mars by 2035, by diverting the resources needed to accomplish this important goal.”