Magnificent Desolation (40 page)

I look forward to seeing these things happening during my lifetime, but if they don’t, please keep this dream alive; please keep going; Mars is there waiting for your footsteps.

Exploration is part and parcel of who we are as human beings; it is wired into our brains, and although I don’t completely understand this, it is wired somehow into our hearts as well. If we can see the horizon, we want to know what’s beyond. If I can do it, so can you.

Today as I write these words, Lois and I are nearing eighty years of age, and both of us are still going, stronger and faster than ever, traveling around the world, attempting to inform future generations, and inspire them to venture outward in creative exploration of our universe. Indeed, the final frontier may well be human relationships, one person interacting with another. Lois and I believe in marriage, but we have no illusions about it. We both know that a great marriage takes enormous sacrifice. Marriage can eliminate a large measure of loneliness in life, but we’ve learned that the challenge of compatibility will always be there. On the other hand, we are convinced that our marriage has created a multiplication of purpose, that in our case at least, one plus one equals far more than two. We can say that confidently, because our
marriage has been based on a great love and respect for each other, but also on a firm commitment to each other.

Perhaps even we did not realize how inextricably we were linked together until our friend, and my fellow astronaut, Pete Conrad, died of internal bleeding as the result of his motorcycle accident a few weeks before the thirtieth anniversary of Apollo 11. Pete was the third person to walk on the moon and, as he claimed, the first person to dance on the moon. After his first step off the lunar module onto the moon’s surface, he quipped, “That may have been one small step for Neil, but it was a long one for me!”

Lois and I attended Pete’s funeral, and went to Arlington National Cemetery for the interment. After the ceremony, I took Lois’s hand and said, “Come on, I want to show you something.” We walked up through the grass a short distance away, and I stopped and pointed at two gravesites. “There are my parents,” I said to Lois. “And that’s where you and I will be,” I said, pointing to the adjoining plots.

Lois was overwhelmed. “Oh, Buzz! That’s one of the nicest things you’ve ever said to me!”

Okay, so I’m not too big on mushy words, but it meant a lot to Lois to know that I was committed to our marriage for the long haul. In my own inimitable way, I was saying to her, “Lois, no matter what happens, we are in this thing for keeps.” When all is said and done, I’m grateful to the space pioneers, Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, von Braun, and Oberth, but I will always be most thankful to my wife, Lois, for coming into my life in 1985, and boosting me far beyond where any rocket could take me, or anything I could ever have achieved on my own.

In truth, the real heroes of Apollo 11 were not Neil, Mike, and me, but the teams of thousands at NASA and across America who magnified their efforts and believed we could do it. Along with this concerted undertaking, it came down to individuals who were willing to say, “Maybe there’s another way, a better way, to do things.”

One of my heroes in particular was John C. Houbolt, a little-known engineer at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, who came up with a daring and ingenious alternative to fly to the moon. It
was 1961, and NASA officials were debating two approaches: launching two Saturn V rockets to rendezvous in Earth orbit, versus using one direct rocket to take us there. John’s idea was to send two spacecraft, and to rendezvous at the moon. Initially, John’s idea struck many people—myself included—as dangerously complex, even bizarre. But Houbolt stubbornly kept pushing his plan, and thanks to his persistence, that is how Neil Armstrong and I walked on the moon and then were able to rendezvous with Mike Collins in the
Columbia
orbiting the moon above us to come home to Earth.

We need some men and women like John Houbolt today, individuals who can learn from the past, and then devise new ways of taking us into the future.

M
AGNIFICENT DESOLATION?
Maybe so, but over the years, I’ve been able to fill in a good many of the craters in my life. What a great life I’ve had! Schools are named for me in Virginia and Illinois. Planetariums bear my name. I’ve written nonfiction books, novels, and scientific papers, and worked on screenplay treatments. A music award still bears my likeness, and a popular toy character with my name inspired an animated film series and a ride at Disney World. I was an ace fighter pilot in the Korean war, earned a doctorate from MIT, and, oh yes, I was the second man in the history of the human species to set foot on a celestial body other than Earth. I feel that I’ve been able to accomplish quite a bit in my short time on this planet, and I’m not done yet!

Oh sure, I still get frustrated at times because I am a visionary often stymied by a bureaucratic maze. But I keep a forward-leaning attitude, looking up the road, always wanting to do something for the betterment of America’s space program.

My fellow moonwalker Alan Bean says:

When I finished my doctoral thesis at MIT on the subject of orbital rendezvous, I dedicated it “To the crew members of this country’s present and future manned space programs. If only I could join them in their exciting endeavors!” For nearly half a century now, I have been one of them; I’m known as an astronaut, and I am still thrilled with that designation. But I don’t want to live in the past; as long as I am here on Earth, I want to be contributing to the present, and I want to stride confidently into the future.

I believe mankind must explore or expire. We must venture outward. And one way or another, when men and women first set foot on Mars, I will be there, whether watching on my flat-screen television in my Los Angeles home, or looking down from the stars.

   A Note About ShareSpace

Everyone Needs Space—ShareSpace Foundation

I am often asked to describe why I founded the nonprofit Share-Space—what my vision is for the organization, and what I hope to accomplish through it. The essence of my plan involves three key areas: exploration, experiences, and education.

1. Exploration.
   Lunar Renaissance.
   

   1. To enhance public understanding of the benefits of past exploration and the expected benefits of future paths of exploration.
      

   2. To encourage astronaut and space program workers’ reunions on the anniversaries of Apollo flights, as reminders of our achievements and inspiration for future exploration of the moon, Mars, and beyond.
      

2. Experiences.
   ShareSpace Awards.
   We plan to present (nontransferable) awards to randomly selected winners (lottery-like) from $100 donations for space-related adventure experiences including guaranteed suborbital flights. Startups will be limited to space advocacy membership
   groups, people who have already shown an interest in space exploration, but the general public will be included soon after the initial offerings. We plan to create even greater publicity through nationally broadcast TV contests, with the winners receiving ever more expansive prizes, progressively leading to prizes of possible orbital flights.
   

3. Education.
   Science Education Ambassadors.
   These ambassadors could be parents or retired teachers of K–12 students, in all state and federal political districts, who will inspire students to see space in their futures, to encourage studies of math and science, and to help ensure that education policies are carried out. We must begin with the children to educate the next generation on the importance of space exploration, and the knowledge that will be necessary to get us there and to keep expanding and exploring new horizons.
   

You can become part of ShareSpace at
www.sharespace.org
or receive more information about our activities at
www.buzzaldrin.com
.

   Acknowledgments

J
UST AS LAUNCHING
a rocket to the moon requires many dedicated people working behind the scenes, this book is the result of a tremendous team effort by numerous individuals working together from the inception of the ideas to the finished product. As such, I want to express a heartfelt thanks to all who helped launch
Magnificent Desolation
, who worked with me each step of the way and brought this book in for a successful landing.

My deepest appreciation to Lisa Cannon, President of StarBuzz LLC, for her indefatigable and invaluable efforts in overseeing every aspect of the writing and editing of the project. I could not have told this story without her.

Day in, and day out, I thank Ken Abraham for his exceptional writing talents in shaping the story and putting my words together in a dramatic and enjoyable style. No small task!

I must extend an extraordinary thanks to my agent, Dan Strone, CEO of Trident Media Group, for catching the vision for this project, helping to create our initial proposal, and believing in it passionately.

A very special thanks to John Glusman, Vice President and Executive Editor of Harmony Books at the Random House Crown Publishing Group, for seeing the potential of
Magnificent Desolation
, embracing the project wholeheartedly, and applying his outstanding editorial skills to
the manuscript. And kudos to Kate Kennedy for keeping us all on the same page.

To the numerous individuals who willingly and freely gave of their time so we could interview them, I extend my sincere thanks. You have greatly enhanced the telling of my story with your insights and information. In addition, I could not have done this without the buoy of support from my staff at StarBuzz LLC. They keep my life running smoothly and have assisted in researching many of the details and historic moments included in this book.

It is never an easy task to travel back along the roads and pathways of one’s life. I especially appreciate my family, children, stepchildren, and two sisters, who shared their memories and insights. As a result, the process of writing the book has been richly rewarding and renewing.

I am deeply grateful to my wife, Lois, who has inspired me at this time in reliving and recounting the amazing journey of my life.

From the moon to the magnificence of life here on Earth, I thank the Higher Power in this great universe.