Jim Lovell Quotes

Exploring Mars is a far different venture from Apollo expeditions to the moon; it necessitates leaving our home planet on lengthy missions with a constrained return capability.

I don't go along with going to Moon first to build a launch pad to go to Mars. We should go to Mars from Earth orbit. We have already been to the Moon; we've already practiced.

Many of us in Congress have been calling on the Administration to articulate a bold mission for NASA. It seems that the President is answering that call. I wholeheartedly support his vision for going back to the moon, and from there to worlds beyond.

The Chinese are planning a manned mission to the moon sometime after 2020, and subsequently, to Mars. The U.S. has abandoned that dream.

We'll go back to the moon by not learning anything new.

My key aim is to get man on the surface of Mars by the mid-2030s.

I was motivated to improve the U.S. strategy of going back to the moon in 1985. That's a long time ago. Going back to the moon would be a great achievement for tourism adventure flights.

My view is that we should go back to the moon, build up the infrastructure to make flights there commonplace - be comfortable with it - then use that infrastructure to expand and go to Mars.

Well, I don't think we should go to the moon. I think we maybe should send some politicians up there.

Buzz Aldrin doesn't think we need to go back to the Moon - that we should go straight on to Mars. I'm more on the side that says we should go back to the Moon. I think there's a lot we can utilise the Moon for scientifically.

Let's not spend resources that we don't need to be sending astronauts back to the moon. Let's not spend expensive resources on bringing people who have reached Mars back again. Prepare them to become a growing colony.

The big reason why we don't have space colonies and regular trips to the moon is that flying into outer space is just plain 'hard.' The business of safely transporting people off the Earth is a costly affair that requires a lot of technology.

I think most astronauts are not risk takers. We take calculated risks for something that we think is worthwhile.

We're not going to get humans to Mars until at least the mid-2030s, and the world is going to change by then.

Back in the days of Apollo, sending humans to the moon was the only viable way to get the scientific data we wanted. But now, with our computer and robotics technology, there's very little an astronaut can do on Mars that a well-designed rover can't.

I don't like being alone, so I want to share these experiences and things with as many people as possible, so that is why I choose to go to the Moon with artists!

The space program needs a goal, and the goal should be humans to Mars.

We are involved in technology development for, you know, missions that we hope to plan that would take us to an asteroid and eventually to Mars.

When you're in a spacecraft, you need to know what things you can touch and what things you shouldn't touch!

Astronauts have been stuck in low-Earth orbit, boldly going nowhere. American attempts to kick-start a new phase of lunar exploration have stalled amid the realisation that NASA's budget is too small for the job.

I think a Moon base is not necessary to get to Mars, but I think it will be helpful. It would give you a chance to develop and mature some systems; long duration, deep space stuff; and you're close enough to get some help, via radio from Earth.

I would suspect strongly that over a period of time, if we put our mind to going to Mars, it will be a consortium of several countries.

But I don't think we'll go there until we go back to the moon and develop a technology base for living and working and transporting ourselves through space.

With the mission to Mars, the whole world wants to get involved. So we actually have 13 different space agencies from around the world working on the global exploration road map.

In Mars, we've been given a wonderful set of moons... where we can send continuous numbers of people.