Quote:
Originally Posted by Webstral
This underscores the problem that military men are military men. Putting the USAF in charge of the US space program would be like putting the US Navy in charge of merchant shipping. Without making any claims about the degree to which space has been militarized already, we should pursue a philosophy of minimizing and retarding the militarization of space instead of giving militarization a de facto embrace by bringing the USAF into it any more than they already are. Sooner or later, there will be an armed presence in space far more significant than anything we can point to today. At one end of the spectrum is a set of competing forces busting budgets in Cold War fashion to ensure that each nation’s commercial interests in space are “protected” against interference by the forces of competing nations. At the other end of the spectrum is a small constabulary-type force in operation to enforce agreed-upon rules for all commercial interests regardless of national origin. We should pursue policies to get as far towards the latter end of the spectrum as possible.
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Most if not all countries would consider any facility, colony or instalation in orbit or beyond to be their own soveriegn territory, and are likely to be overtly hostile to any other country or organisation attempting to enter, inspect or take control of it. A commercial facility owned by a large corporation might be a grey area, but if their using the resources or infrastructure of a host country to maintain it then their likely to be considered some countries property. Unfortunately people and countries are territorial, even on Antarctica, and they will retain the right to defend themselves if they think they are being threatened or potentially under some prospect of threat, and the militarisation of space is an inevitability.