At the 2017 Humans to Mars conference on May 9 in Washington, veteran astronaut Buzz Aldrin had a clear piece of advice for NASA ¡ª if the space agency is serious about reaching Mars, its needs to ditch the International Space Station (ISS).
Apollo 11 US astronaut Buzz Aldrin - Gage Skidmore
¡°We must retire the ISS as soon as possible,¡± Aldrin said at the conference. ¡°We simply cannot afford $3.5 billion a year of that cost.¡± He went on to make further suggestions for NASA¡¯s Mars mission, including handing over other low-Earth orbit projects like the ISS to private agencies like SpaceX, Boeing, and Blue Origin.
However, NASA is of a slightly different opinion regarding ISS. So far, the agency has been using the space station as a way to test public-private partnerships with private space agencies, employing their rockets on supply runs while also providing them with developmental input. In fact, NASA officials have repeatedly said the ISS is a key component of the ¡®Journey to Mars¡¯.
Members of the US House Science and Technology¡¯s Subcommittee on Space have already stated that the country plans to abandon its participation in the ISS in 2024, mostly because the monumental expenditure is not worth it when NASA plans to go beyond, to the Red Planet. However, all of that could change when put to a vote, because other parties in the discussion believe that $3.5 billion will not be spent on any other Earth, Moon, or Mars projects. Eventually, it may all come down to completely different factors, like the expenditure for NASA¡¯s Journey to Mars plans, and the fact that it¡¯s running out of astronaut suits.