BUZZ ALDRIN: Purchase a lovely new home, on Mars. “Aldrin, speaking to the AFP (Agence France Presse, a global news agency), said the men and women who board the world’s first non-stop flight to Mars should establish a long-term colony on the Red Planet. The time and expense required to send them there warrants more than a brief sojourn, he says, so those who are on board should think of themselves as pioneers. Like the Pilgrims who came to the New World or the families who headed to the Wild West, they should not plan on coming back home.”

UPDATE: Reader Clinton Edwards writes: “The problem is that the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 (which covers the moon and other celestial bodies) forbids private property ownership. You can’t go to Mars and stake a claim to a few acres like you could in New England or the Old West. Instead your homestead belongs to whoever happens by.”

That’s not really correct. Rob Merges and I discuss the issue at some length here.