Trump's Space Force

[Mikeallison]

@Jacob

That was a fascinating read. Funny that such a simple concept could be so effective.

What about the idea of constructing some sort of scaffolding up there for building larger installations modular style? Seems logical as one of the biggest hurdles is getting big stuff up there. This way payloads could remain small, but scale could increase.

[enigmaT120]

Yeah it (dropping things on Earth targets from space) was used in Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and more recently in a book called 7Eves where the moon was destroyed by something (an agent) like what Jacob was describing.

[ThisDinosaur]

As much as I love Heinlein and space opera, this is a stupid idea. The best defense against incoming asteroids and comets would be something like NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission, which has been in planning stages for years. It provides practice for deflecting asteroids as well as practice for mining them. This type of mission would provide useful technical info for private enterprise to take the ball, the way SpaceX has with 60 year old rocket technology.

As for orbiting missile platforms, they are much easier for the enemy to knock out of the sky than an ICBM, because established orbits are extremely predictable, while missiles moving propulsively through an atmosphere are not (relatively).

But I dont agree with the idea that we should fix all of earth's problems before investing in space. Space exploration can help solve earthbound problems. As an example, a lot of what we know about global climate change can be traced to unmanned probes to Venus, where we first studied the greenhouse effect.

[daylen]

To be clear, I was not saying we should cease exploring space. There are obvious benefits to probes and satellites, but I think that colonizing space to any great extent (like on mars) is likely to be couterproductive for the time being.

[ThisDinosaur]

https://youtu.be/k46ea6AGfZY
Neil deGrasse Tyson's opinion on the Space Force.

[George the original one]

Space Force... okay, not much problem with the concept since the forces are headed in that direction anyway. The real problem is that cutting taxes, not acknowledging the costs of "the wall", ticking off your diplomatic & trade partners, and then de-prioritizing other spending items is the wrong path to getting cooperation from the likes of me.

[Kriegsspiel]

.