(previous interviews in this series can be found here.)

Welcome to another installment of Questions From a Kid. Today, Zoey chats with Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

It’s not hyperbole to say that this is her biggest interview to date. It’s not every day that you get to meet, much less chat with, someone who walked on the moon. Only 12 humans have ever been able to claim that accomplishment, and Buzz was part of the historic first manned moon landing.

He’s a genuine American hero, and it was a spectacular thrill to meet him.

Buzz was on hand at this year’s National Book Festival to promote his new book with National Geographic: Welcome to Mars: Making a Home on the Red Planet. Buzz has always been a proponent of continued space exploration and NASA funding, but he’s recently also become an outspoken champion of manned missions to Mars.

With the Orion program underway at NASA and interest in endeavors such as the proposed Mars One human settlement at an all-time high, getting people to Mars doesn’t feel much like science fiction anymore.

The book is a great introduction to Mars, space exploration, and extraterrestrial settlement for kids. On top of it being a fascinating read, it also includes science experiments and activities kids can do on their own to help them make personal connections to the astronomy and physics discussed. The illustrations of what life might look like on a Martian colony are also great conversation starters.

(Buzz has also written a book for adults – Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration – which obviously goes a bit deeper into these topics.)

As always, all questions are Zoey’s. I simply prompt her with “clue words” so she can remember. (Make sure you turn on subtitles if you can’t make out Zoey’s questions.)

Thanks so much to Buzz Aldrin for taking the time to chat with Zoey and his publicist Karen Wadsworth for helping to arrange the interview! Thanks also to Anna Irwin with National Geographic Kids and Sheryl Cannady with the Library of Congress.