A CONVERSATION WITH DR. BUZZ ALDRIN By Anthony Ricardi - September 21, 2007 It is rare in life to meet someone you have long admired, and have him surpass all preconceptions. In conjunction with my review of In the Shadow of the Moon, I was able to speak to one of the iconic figures of my youth (mine and millions of others), Dr. Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon. The purpose of my conversation with Dr. Aldrin was to discuss the new documentary, in which he is featured along with other Apollo astronauts in a stirring evocation of the glory days of the American space program. After graciously fitting me into his schedule on short notice, soon after beginning our conversation, I realized that Dr. Aldrin is a man of myriad, rapid-fire ideas and expansive ones, at that. It was easy to see why he was portrayed in the documentary as the “brainiac” (or “Dr. Rendezvous,” in reference to his doctorate from MIT) among the other astronauts. In almost every other sentence, he brought up a new concept or an interesting aside relating to past events. When I told Dr. Aldrin how much I enjoyed the film, how it was not only the best documentary, but the best film I had seen this year, and how inspiring I found it, he joked that it was not bad for a bunch of old guys sitting around talking to the camera. Humble heroes, at one time an American ideal, don’t get much press anymore. To actually hear one of the greatest describe himself and his colleagues in such an unassuming manner was almost shocking. Dr. Aldrin is about as far from your typical 70-something retiree as the earth is from the moon – for one thing, he has never retired. Having legally changed his name to Buzz from Edwin in the 1980’s, Dr. Aldrin has been, ever since retiring from space flight, writing books and articles and traveling the world, speaking about space tourism and the development of privatized space travel. A central theme in our discussion of the film was that America did it before and can do it again, space-wise. The skillful way that Director David Sington used the glories and achievements of the past, including Dr. Aldrin’s substantial achievements, to attempt to motivate us Americans to lead the way back to the future, is at once sophisticated and simple – as simple as just telling the truth. Dr. Aldrin agreed with this approach wholeheartedly. He believes that Sington had observed the pause, the transition that had been going on (or devolution, in this writer’s words) in the space program, and wanted to remind everyone that things hadn’t always been thus. Far from it… Dr. Aldrin noted that the interviews with most of the remaining Apollo astronauts were done after the Columbia tragedy, which added another layer of poignancy to the proceedings. The film is no wake, however, but a wake-up call. Dr. Aldrin and his contemporaries are presented as positive and hopeful individuals, and that is exactly the spirit that Dr. Aldrin presents to this day. The unstated question that one leaves the documentary with is, simply, what happened? What caused this gap between the expectations of the early space program, and the hesitant low earth exploits (at least in terms of manned missions) of the last three decades? When I put this question to Dr. Aldrin, he brought up the subject of the announcement by the President at the beginning of 2004 of a new space initiative. There’s a sense that just three years on, we are drifting away from even that attempt at revivifying our aspirations in space. It was observed that it is interesting (and more than ironic) that it takes an outside party, a Brit, to be the one to come along and attempt to get us enthused and excited again. The device of using on-camera interviews with the astronauts – tapping into their “right stuff” and adventurous spirits – combined with all the fantastic “new” (actually recovered archival) NASA footage seems to have just the right synergy to engender enthusiasm in just about anybody who sees it. Dr. Aldrin remarked that when he first saw the title of the film, he didn’t quite know what to make of it. However, the longer things went on, as he saw the particular emphasis that Sington placed upon the shadow, both physically and metaphorically, the more he began to appreciate it. The shadow of the moon to which the film’s title refers, sparked a memory from Dr. Aldrin concerning his time in that very shadow. To hear him wax so eloquently about the sense of isolation, being cut off from all communication and all light, save that from the stars, was a privilege, as if listening in ancient times to part of a great saga, not mythic, but an observation of an awesome event from one of the participants. Dr. Aldrin stated that to be in such circumstances was also remarkable to him. It was revelatory to hear that in all the planning and preparation, no one spent any significant time thinking about what it would actually be like to experience the moon’s shadow in terms of feelings of total detachment from everything earthly. When it happened, it felt very odd to him indeed. He particularly remembers how grateful he was when he began to see the faint glow of the hidden sun, then to watch it grow in intensity and finally come up over the lunar horizon, and he remembers thinking how beautiful the light was. The fact that the moon at present almost taunts us by saying “I’m still here, where are you?” was touched on by Dr. Aldrin. Its presence is unavoidable. It still calls to us as it has to mankind for our entire existence; it’s just that in the past, we were forced to be passive observers. Now that we have the capability to interact with our nearest satellite, that’s where the frustrations enter. In discussing why our nation voluntarily put the brakes on our efforts to explore the moon in the 70’s, the subject of a little-known treaty with the Russians signed in 1967 was brought up by Dr. Aldrin. The 1967 treaty (known as the Outer Space Treaty) was very influential in our future activities on the moon, Dr. Aldrin mentioning that because no one knew who was going to get to the moon first, the treaty basically said that no country could claim it. Speaking of the late 1960’s and the whirlwind build-up to the actual landing on the moon, Dr. Aldrin related the separation that was occurring in the country between generations and mind-sets. The vast majority of the nation had been inculcated for years with the notion that the astronauts were our national heroes, but there was a minority who seemed intent on putting down anything that resembled the old notions of the American ideal. Something that had not occurred to me, but that did to Dr. Aldrin, was that there was perhaps no greater symbol of the “establishment” than the astronauts themselves. At one point, when he was walking with a couple of colleagues, looking every inch the buttoned-down military men that they were, some young people (I’ll call them hippies) threw eggs at them just because they looked like “the man.” These kids didn’t know who Dr. Aldrin and his associates were; they just knew they weren’t like them. As Dr. Aldrin said, the astronauts didn’t exactly exude flower power. This same anti-establishment attitude could be directly related to the later truncation of the Apollo program. Well, that, and the fact that unfortunately, human nature and especially the nature of Americans, involves shortened attention spans when they should be thinking in terms of the long view. Dr. Aldrin acknowledged that people lost interest concerning the visits to the moon in the early 1970’s - that they saw mission after mission, one lunar rover after another, and somehow they simply grew tired of it. The note of wistfulness in his voice was still there after all these years. On a more optimistic note, Dr. Aldrin has high hopes for the future. He has for years been a consistent voice in favor of a non-bureaucratic commercially-based space program. His endeavors are geared toward assuring that the next time we do make a push toward space, we don’t just go someplace (like back to the moon, or to Mars) three or four times and say we did it, then stop. Whether we to go to the moon, or the asteroids, or Mars, we need to set up commercially viable way stations, so that once we are there, we are there for good. In military terms, we should be looking at it as a permanent change of station, not a temporary deployment. With his ceaseless efforts, his patents and plans, the formation of Starcraft Enterprises, and more, Dr. Aldrin has been taking tangible steps toward a renewed effort to re-establish our presence in the solar system beyond our own orbit. In constant contact with many influential figures in industry and government, Dr. Aldrin has developed a fascinating information network to which he contributes significantly. In describing a recent conversation with a brilliant scientist colleague, someone so high up in the food chain that he must remain nameless, he mentioned the exciting fact that a new form of shielding has just been developed that would better protect space travelers from prolonged exposure to radiation in outer space. Dr. Aldrin stated that this individual is much more conservative than he is, and believes highly in patient observation and the results of those observations. This brought us to the different ways that scientists approach what they do, and that led us into the high weeds of the global climate debate. Dr. Aldrin posited that a lot of current science involves chasing money, and following the money means being on the constant lookout for a grant. To uncover something new and contrary to established fact, he stated, means that you have a better chance of getting funded, than if you set out to confirm the status quo. In other words, it is unlikely that validating that the Earth has been around for a long time and goes through regular temperature fluctuations will capture many research dollars. Dr. Aldrin asked simply why is it that many people now think that temperatures must be maintained exactly as they are or that there is something terribly wrong. In terms of historical perspective, Dr. Aldrin did not hesitate to sum up the 20th century as a time that will be known by great achievements, especially in space flight. However, his opinion of the 21st century so far is less than glorious. Touching on the current administration, Dr. Aldrin commented that our leader seems less than focused on our goals in space. He noted that the President has, at the risk of understating the situation, a lot to deal with, beginning with his narrow electoral victory that came about with the aid of the Supreme Court, and shortly after, the terrorist attacks of 2001 and the subsequent military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, followed by the Columbia tragedy. But the situation stands that we only have three space shuttles left and no plans to replace them. From Dr. Aldrin’s perspective, the current focus of the administration with regard to the space program is less on what is important for the future of man, than on what is expedient for immediate national political considerations. This is evidenced by the 2004 announcement of the President’s space initiative (which felt like a trial balloon, touting a program that would cost billions of dollars and take decades of concerted effort) and its almost immediate disappearance in terms of the public consciousness. (Even though the Orion program is proceeding, there is still going to be a sizable gap of time between the demise of the shuttle and the development of the new moon/Mars vehicle. During that time, America will have no manned space flight capability.) Dr. Aldrin is convinced that it is up to private industry to recapture our dominance in space and believes fervently that it will take a strong central focus, a setting of achievable goals and the translation of those goals into terms that will capture the imagination of society at large. Perhaps the most exciting part of our entire interview was finding that Dr. Aldrin himself would harbor the possibility of becoming that that much-needed motivating figure, pointing the way clearly to the future. If there is anyone that could do it, was born to do it, it would be Dr. Aldrin, and the sooner the better.