From the Times Online Jan 21:

A human boot is scheduled once again to kick regolith – lunar dust – in 2020. And this time we plan to stay. “Unless disaster strikes the world,” says Ken Pounds, the grand old man of British space science, “this could be the great human endeavour of the 21st century.”

He speaks with feeling, for he comes from a deeply disappointed generation. They were inspired by the Apollo programme and expected human space exploration just to continue. Now he thinks we may have started too soon. “I spoke to Buzz Aldrin [the second man to walk on the moon] and he said the Apollo programme came too soon, the world wasn’t ready for it. It was very much part of the cold war, when Kennedy wanted to outdo the Russians in terms of prestige.”

So: was Apollo ahead of its time - or is the present world "behind its time"?

The tech to go to the moon was made available by the US in the 1960s. That means we were ready for it there and then. How could, with any conscience, a moon landing be delayed for decades while "the world" catches up?

My guess is that Aldrin's comment was meant only as dramatic hyperbole, and as the 2nd man on the moon, he'd surely be last in line to argue the point seriously.