As the lunar module pilot for Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin remains the most well-known figure in the aerospace industry today and a consistent advocate for human exploration of Mars. He has long pushed for the concept of a "cycler," a semi-permanent spacecraft in orbit around the Sun that would carry cargo and crew between Earth and Mars periodically.

But in recent years, Aldrin has begun to embrace the thing that made him famous—the Moon—as a critical waypoint on the road to Mars. This involves the collection of lunar ice, believed to be accessible at the poles, for use as propellant to send astronauts deeper into space.

As we inch closer to the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, momentum appears to be building behind this idea. Several officials with the Trump administration have indicated their preference for lunar landings before attempting to send astronauts to Mars, and after six years of promoting the "Journey to Mars," NASA has also begun considering a human return to the Moon.

This week Aldrin issued a clear call for a return to the Moon as the first step toward sending humans to establish a permanent presence on Mars. He encouraged the new National Space Council to work with the Trump administration to formulate a plan and announce it on July 20, 2019—the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing.

To accomplish this, Trump should take a hard look at NASA, Aldrin argued. In an op-ed published in The Hill, Aldrin called out the expensive hardware programs now consuming all of NASA's human exploration budget, including the International Space Station, Orion spacecraft, and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

"It’s got to be reduced if we’re ever going to get anywhere new," Aldrin wrote. "People, companies, NASA itself, don’t like to have things reduced. But if we don’t, we’re going to continue spending to keep the International Space Station going. We’re going to keep the Orion piloted spacecraft, a project that is too expensive and too late. And we’re going to keep the Space Launch System flying once a year at a hefty price tag of billions of dollars. Again, we’re not going anywhere if we don’t do something about these issues."

Talking to Buzz

Ars called Aldrin after reading the op-ed to flesh out the details of his plan. As ever, the 87-year-old astronaut was full of energy and eager to talk all things space. As the commercial space industry has grown and evolved, Aldrin said he's taken that into consideration in his ideas. "I've been really impressed by the commercial space station ideas," Aldrin said, mentioning Bigelow Aerospace and Axiom Space.

Aldrin said he's not calling for the outright cancellation of the SLS and Orion—at least not yet. If the programs are going to be part of NASA's exploration strategy, they need to be put on notice. They need to perform on schedule, in 2019, and their budgets must be cut. And if NASA is serious about deep space exploration, it must consider ending the International Space Station in 2020 to free up $3 to $4 billion in annual funding.

The international partnership behind the station, including Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada, should grow to add developing nations such as China and aim instead toward development of lunar bases, Aldrin said. This begins with polar satellites around the Moon and lunar rovers to detect ice, then progressing toward a commercial "cycler" between low Earth orbit and the Moon, perhaps two of Bigelow's B330 modules. Over time, robots and humans will construct lunar bases to mine this ice, convert it into water, and return it to low-Earth orbit.

By learning to live and work on the Moon and collecting fuel for Martian missions, NASA will then have the experience it needs to go deeper into the Solar System, as well as the rocket fuel needed to dramatically cut its costs to get there.

Aldrin said he is not a fan of NASA's current plan to develop a "Deep Space Gateway" in orbit around the Moon, because it doesn't go far enough to advance human exploration toward the surface of the Moon or Mars. Like some critics of the Deep Space Gateway, such as Robert Zubrin, Aldrin appears to be concerned that a cislunar station is a cul-de-sac rather than a highway toward deep space.

One gets the sense from Aldrin that he recognizes this may be his last, best chance to influence space policy. With the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing looming, there is an opportunity to guide space policy toward more ambitious goals like those he played a part in long ago. And the Trump administration, Aldrin believes, offers a chance to shake things up among the established aerospace firms, with their large, cost-plus contracts, and the newer commercial companies.