While visiting Stonehenge, astronaut Buzz Aldrin sent a “message” to the Cosmos, urging NASA to “get their ass to Mars”. Aldrin was the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11 and became the second person to ever walk on the moon at 03:15:16 (UTC) on July 21, 1969.

In June 2013, Aldrin wrote an opinion published in The New York Times supporting a manned mission to Mars and views the moon “not as a destination but more a point of departure, one that places humankind on a trajectory to homestead Mars and become a two-planet species.”

His book Mission to Mars was published in May 2013.