Melbourne: Buzz Aldrin, the second man to ever walk on Moon, feels that the first men to land on Mars should never return to Earth.
Aldrin shared his views during an ‘AMA’ or ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on the website Reddit ahead of the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20.
“The next monumental achievement of humanity would be the first landing by an Earthling – a human being, on the planet Mars”, he wrote, adding that they should not come back to Earth as they should be the beginning of a build-up of a colony/settlement, which he calls as ‘permanence’.
The 84-year-old former astronaut also said that the probability of aliens’ existence was almost certain and there is definitely life somewhere in space.
He praised Sandra Bullock for her performance in ‘Gravity’ and said that the Hollywood actress deserved an Oscar for the movie.
Aldrin also shared that his first impression of the moon was of “magnificent desolation” as there is no place on earth as desolate and when he was looking at, towards the horizon, in every direction; nothing had changed in thousands of years.
He further explained, that all he could see was the moon curving away, no atmosphere, just black sky and cold, but when the sun came up for 14 days, it was very hot, however, there was no sign of life whatsoever.
Interestingly, Mr Aldrin also revealed that he was interested in composing a new song, titled ‘Get your ass to Mars!’ because he had heard Frank Sinatra sing ‘Fly me to the Moon’ too many times.