My first biography written in '73 was not 'Journey To The Moon.' It was 'Return To Earth.' Because for me, that was the more difficult task - disappointment.

I inherited depression from my mother's side of the family. Her father committed suicide. She committed suicide the year before I went to the moon.

I was lucky enough to have been born on this planet earth, in this admirable country of the United States of America.

Many say exploration is part of our destiny, but it's actually our duty to future generations and their quest to ensure the survival of the human species.

To send humans back to the moon would not be advancing. It would be more than 50 years after the first moon landing when we got there, and we'd probably be welcomed by the Chinese. But we should return to the moon without astronauts and build, with robots, an international lunar base, so that we know how to build a base on Mars robotically.

History gets reinterpreted as time goes on. Many times, the participants are lost in the retelling of the story.

We need to have people up there who can communicate what it feels like, not just pilots and engineers.