Never could I have imagined more than a half century ago as the world watched American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin step foot on the moon that both would become personal friends and professional colleagues, or that I would later spend much of life planning ways to create human settlements both there and on Mars about 90 times farther.
I was an architect and freshly hired assistant professor of industrial design at the University of Illinois at that time, heading that program until joining the University of Houston architecture faculty 48 years ago.
It's there I founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) and its graduate program where I still teach to this day.
Buzz Aldrin, a terrifically innovative thinker, became involved with our space architecture research and design projects from our program's earliest days, also sharing his expertise with Bell and Trotti, Inc., a private aerospace consulting firm I co-founded with Guillermo Trotti.
Buzz and I have remained close friends throughout these many years, and we coauthored a book, "Beyond Flagpoles and Footprints: Pioneering the Space Frontier."
Neil Armstrong joined the board of directors of Space industries, Inc. (SII), another commercial firm I co-founded with Guillermo Trotti along with former NASA Johnson Space Center Chief Engineer Maxime Faget and James Calaway in 1987.
The first two NASA JSC Directors, Robert Gilruth and Christopher Kraft, also served on SII's board.
I voluntarily left my role as SII's senior vice president soon following its successful initial public offering to retain my position as SICSA's director.
SII later merged with Calspan and Veridian, went public on the New York Stock Exchange, and was purchased by General Dynamics.
I've had the great privilege in these various roles and relationships to know and work with half of those brave souls who have walked on the moon in addition to many other smart and dedicated ones who made those achievements possible.
These activities and experiences have also included numerous opportunities to travel abroad – to Russia most particularly – being one of the first Americans invited to meet with their top technical space program officials following the Soviet Union's implosion.
During that first of many trips to Moscow that took place from the late 1980s through the early 2020s I was shown a full-size mockup of a lunar lander concept developed during the U.S. Apollo era, indicating that Buzz was right in telling me that they had been in secret space race with us to the moon until we beat them.
This contest is extensively discussed in our co-authored book.
According to the Russia's state-run news agency Tass, in 2024 the head of Russia's space agency Yuri Borisov announced "seriously considered plans" to autonomously install a joint Russian- Chinese nuclear fission power plant on the moon prior to human presence using automation technology to land cosmonauts and establish a moon base by 2031 within amid similar lunar settlement efforts by the U.S.
Borisov said that that Russia is also developing a nuclear-powered "space tugboat" that can transport cargo from one orbit to another, collect space debris or "engage in many other applications" which he specified should not include nuclear weapons.
The Russia agreement with China includes development of several lunar landers for research, a jumping robot, smart mini rovers to study the moon’s surface, and communications systems.
Meanwhile, China launched a Chang'e 6 unmanned mission to retrieve first-ever surface samples from the far side surface of the moon in 2024.
In a new space race NASA has replaced its original plans for a lunar-orbiting space station called "Gateway" in favor of a stepped-up schedule of its Artemis program of lunar surface missions leading to establishment of permanent moon base before Chinese and Russians do so as a long-term foothold for deep space exploration.
Mars is frequently cited as a next stage U.S. human occupancy objective, with the moon serving as a test bed for technology that can get us there and support development and operations of an American Mars base.
Those who know Buzz Aldrin realize his great passion for creating a human settlement on Mars, along with his "Aldrin Cycling Orbit" concept for deep space missions that can be applied to this objective.
Whereas we won't go to Mars from the moon, both moon and Mars surface exploration and settlements will require development of relatively small nuclear power plants that can be launched, landed, and autonomously connected with other surface infrastructures prior to first crew arrivals.
Due to crucial 2.2-year Earth-Mars orbital transit alignment windows, upon arrival all crews must be prepared to remain on the surface for more than a year following more than a half-year in transit each way under weightless conditions that weaken muscles and bones while under dangerous space radiation exposure.
These very long Mars travel distances and surface durations will require substantially larger habitats and cargo capacities than for the moon, meaning bigger rockets with much larger fuel appetites to deliver, land them, and return crews.
We, at SICSA, are developing comprehensive research and design proposals for an Aldrin Settlement on Mars capable of supporting 16 people by the year 2045 in tribute to Buzz and applying his cycling orbit concept.
And yes, we are seriously dedicated to realizing this goal in connection with NASA's lunar surface testbed and dual-use infrastructure technology objectives.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read more Larry Bell Insider articles — Click Here Now.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.