Science Forums 2

[Moontanman]

I think there is some reason to think the US space program is in trouble. The US seems to be infatuated with spreading our culture around the world, by force if necessary (no cracks about us not having a culture please) This absolute stupidity is sucking money away from many things and very few seen to be worried about the cost.

If we were to invest 10% of this money into an active and aggressive space program the US would own the inner solar system in just a few decades. No one else could possible keep up and we would (for those hawks) effectively own the highest of all high grounds. In warfare who ever owns the high ground has always be thought of as having a tremendous advantage.

So far our military seems to have missed this point. Once we are active and installed in force in places like the asteroids, Jupiter's Lagrange points and even further out the moons of Saturn we (or who ever has the will and drive to do this) will be completely in control of the high ground.

Why would this be advantageous? Even if you dismiss the tremendous amounts of easily accessible raw materials and the ability to make things in zero gee that cannot be made on the earth, imagine if a county attacked us and a few days later their major military bases were to disappear in a multimegaton explosion with no radioactivity involved! Just the threat of such a thing would be sobering to most if not all countries.

Countries that support terrorism could draw retribution for any attacks by weapons of mass destruction without endangering nearby cities and people with radioactive fall out. The high ground is where we need to be, if not the US then it will be someone else, eventually.