Halting the militarization of space can best be accomplished with large geosynchronous orbit human crewed platforms serving as sovereign territory of various nations. With all telecom interests concentrated on these space stations the rest of near Earth space can be laser-broomed clean of all junk and overflights by military satellites in low orbits strictly regulated.
The main obstacle to solving the problems in space is of course radiation. A human presence anywhere Beyond Low Earth Orbit (BLEO) will require massive shielding. The ice on the Moon, harvested by robot landers, and the derived water transferred to wet workshops in cislunar space, can provide the tens of thousands of tons of shielding that will be needed for the initial chain of telecom platforms.
The landers can convert a fraction of the ice they harvest into fuel, and in a semi-expendable fashion maintain a pipeline of water and chemical propellants to facilitate a cislunar infrastructure. A shuttle era schedule of Super Heavy Lift Vehicle missions with capabilities exceeding a minimum lift of 100 tons (like the SLS) for the next 30 years would not only effect a chain of large GEO space stations around the Earth but also create a pipeline for spaceship construction.
Of special interest to Secretary Wilson would be the eventual transfer of the nuclear deterrent into deep space on human-crewed spaceships and the ratcheting down of the present launch-on-warning scenario. As well as providing for deflection of comet or asteroid impact threats to Earth.
The plans by NewSpace “entrepreneurs” to essentially flood Earth orbit with cheap and nasty networks of thousands of mini-satellites is the opposite path that will immensely complicate any efforts to establish stability and sustainability in near Earth space.
But SpacePolicyOnline did post this:
The problem with this (space travel) is what I call “The Parker-Dyson-Spudis continuum” and I have yet to have a single person put forth a convincing argument against it. It goes like this:
1. Due to the heavy nuclei component of galactic cosmic radiation there is only one guaranteed way to protect astronauts from dosing during long duration deep space missions- as detailed by Eugene Parker- this requires about 500 tons of water or plastic for a small capsule. For a spaceship water is the utilitarian choice and for any practical living space the compartment would need well over a thousand tons.
2. The only practical system for pushing a kiloton range water shield Beyond Earth and Lunar Orbit (BELO) on an interplanetary mission is Nuclear Pulse Propulsion (specially designed atomic or more likely hydrogen bombs). The work of Freeman Dyson on Project Orion infers such a system could only be used outside the Earth’s magnetosphere. Star Wars data on directed energy weapons research and the global stockpile of bomb grade material further validate this concept.
3. The only shallow gravity well available from which to acquire the water shielding and assemble, test, and launch a nuclear mission (outside the Earth’s magnetosphere) is the Moon. The work of Paul Spudis enables exploitation of the ice resources at the lunar poles and the creation of a cislunar infrastructure capable of supporting construction of a true spaceship capable of interplanetary travel.
Ice on the Moon 