Despite having left my toxic online community….I still have some things to say and The Space Review seems willing to let me post occasionally. And then allow others to trivialize, mock, and denigrate me. But whoever is moderating must be throwing out most of the replies because they are just not vicious and disgusting enough for fanboys.
Here is the third comment I submitted. The first two were posted.
The need for military personnel in space is now vital to national security for 3 reasons:
- The nuclear triad is failing as a valid deterrent. Submarines, bomber bases, and ICBM sites are all targeted and with only minutes to “use them or lose them”, the risk of a massive exchange is as high as ever. Our luck cannot continue. Launch on warning MUST be extended from those few minutes to bring the risk down or our luck WILL run out. The money spent on nuclear submarines that are now tracked by sea glider underwater drones, on new bombers that are kept under constant surveillance, and on ICBMs in silos the coordinates of which are precisely known, can all be redirected to a space-based deterrent. Space as in NOT orbital. Months away in deep space Beyond Earth and Lunar Orbit (BELO). Such “Space Boomers” would necessarily be human-crewed. These Spaceships would cost the same as the triad and one figure to use as proof is the quarter of a trillion-dollar life cycle cost of just the 12 new missile submarines.
- Satellite constellations are increasing the risk of nuclear war. The temptation to militarize these tens of thousands of satellites will inevitably lead to many of the same cold war games that were played in the last century. Unfortunately, because satellites are not human-crewed, those games MUST inevitably spin out of control. The resulting incidents WILL place the superpowers on nuclear alert and these repeated Cuban-missile-crisis events cannot have any other effect but to run our luck out at some point. The greatest danger is the inability of the superpowers to detect weapons being launched with the present warning network resulting in a hair-trigger launch on warning situation that will NOT be sustainable. The solution is the same solution used in places like the DMZ on the Korean peninsula where U.S. soldiers have been stationed for 72 years. Human-crewed Space Stations in GEO would be the new DMZ. Stationed over national borders any actions against these Stations would be the same as an attack on a U.S. military base and the resulting casualties would entail consequences not found in satellite brinkmanship. These Stations would also provide infallible early warning of attack.
- DOD’s mission is to “provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security. The Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard are the armed forces of the United States.” National security is fundamentally about preventing the destruction of a nation. This includes the destruction of the world of course. If the world goes then so MUST America be destroyed also. Any insurance policy for humankind in effect with a sustainable population off-world WILL prevent the destruction of America. Only the DOD has the resources to begin this sea change in national defense by projecting not only deterrence but also creating an insurance policy for all of humankind off-world. Entrepreneurial schemes will NOT succeed in creating any kind of human expansion or permanent presence Beyond Earth Orbit (BEO). Space-based nuclear deterrence would provide planetary protection with tremendous power to deflect asteroid and comet impact threats. The cislunar infrastructure required to support GEO warning Stations and space-based deterrence would enable further industrial expansion with lunar human technicians and a path to addressing another DOD priority: Climate Change. Space Solar Power by way of lunar resources as the solution to Climate Change.
Ice on the Moon 