Buzz Aldrin Says NASA Should Ditch the ISS If It Really Wants To Go To Mars

Space travel is costly and if NASA truly needs to get to Mars, it needs to surrender the International Space Station (ISS).

That is the message originating from Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon and the principal fellow to snap a selfie on the lunar surface.

Talking at the Human to Mars meeting in Washington DC, Aldrin said the present expenses of keeping up the station were excessively incredible. "We must retire the ISS as soon as possible," he said.

"We simply cannot afford $3.5 billion a year of that cost."

NASA, in the meantime, keeps up that the circling space station is a key some portion of the arrangement to land people on the red planet. The organization says the ISS is financed up until 2024 and it (alongside other space offices) plans to keep it operational until 2028.

“We can afford to go to Mars but we must have fiscal discipline," Buzz told the conference.

"We must focus our limited resources on only those things that are really necessary to get to Mars.

"In my view, we are currently spending over $6bn on programmes we do not need to get to Mars. We need reusability, every element of the system.”

As per Buzz, people could go to Mars like clockwork by 2039 on reusable "cycler" shuttle that convey teams on the three-month trip.

"We must focus our limited resources on only those things that are really necessary to get to Mars.

"In my view, we are currently spending over $6bn on programmes we do not need to get to Mars. We need reusability, every element of the system.”

Buzz also says “humans could travel to Mars every two years by 2039 on reusable "cycler" spacecraft that carry crews on the three-month trip “