Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, attended the Cambridge Union Society on Saturday in their last speaker event of Lent term. 

The 85 year old, flanked by his son Andy, spoke for the first time at the Union in front of a full chamber, despite it being the end of term and a busy travel day for many of the colleges.

The queue for entry zigzagged through the blue room, outside and onto Bridge Street, with some people queuing for hours. Many of those that did not make it into the chamber were forced into overflow rooms, or turned away.

Questions were raised by the audience prompting both anecdotal and technical answers in the hour and half dedicated to the former U.S Air Force officer and MIT graduate. 

Asked about how it was decided which of the Apollo crew would step onto the moon first, Aldrin replied: “You wouldn’t expect me to say ‘after you’, would you?” However, it was Commander Armstrong’s rank which dictated who would exit the craft first as “Commanders were always the first to set foot on new territory”; he cited Columbus as an example. 

Aldrin has been invited to speak on previous occasions, but has had to postpone. The announcement of his visit coincided with the cancellation of Sarah Palin as the end of term speaker at the Union.

Although many of the answers were given by Aldrin, his son Andy often added to his father’s insightful yet humorous answers. Andy Aldrin is president of Moon Express, one of a number of commercial space exploration firms. When asked about the future of space travel, both Andy and Buzz agreed that the future of space travel was “with the commercial sector”.

“Up to this point [space flight] has been dominated by government programmes, but now technology is well understood, so it can be turned over to the commercial sector to be done cheaper.”

Questions became more recent and topical, focussing on how and when a Mars mission will take place. Andy Aldrin said “we will go to Mars” with Buzz suggesting it was the next step.

Focus then turned to how this would be possible, with a question on the plausibility of nuclear propulsion. This idea, however, was dismissed by Aldrin, who asked: “What would happen to the rockets? ... I don’t think many people will be comfortable with nuclear rockets flying past the earth.”

The talk came to an end on a question about how far competition with the Russians propelled the Space Race in the 1960s, with Buzz suggesting that “we were aware of what they were doing and it influenced some of things we did”.

Aldrin left the chamber with his son promptly to ensure he was not late for a “very important meeting with Professor Stephen Hawking” in the afternoon.