Will Space Be Declared A War Zone? When we talk about the new era of space exploration, something very human comes up and that is unfortunate. It is talk about weapons in space. If we look closely, we find some of the things in space such as satellites can not only have civilian uses, but military ones. Isn’t that true of a lot of things? Every year patents are confiscated because even though many of them are for devices for consumers, they could also be converted to deadly weapons. The Russians have a new satellite which can move from satellite to satellite. The stated purpose is for repair, but we think it could be a dandy weapon for destroying satellites. Maybe we think this way because of former satellites which the Soviets had put into orbit such as one which contained a cannon. They found it couldn’t be fired because of the recoil which would move the satellite. Here is the sad part of all of this. NATO has scheduled a conference in December 2019 and according to the website Astronauts, NATO could declare space a war zone. This should be the last thing we consider, but the military industrial complex would love this to get passed because it would mean the purchase of billions of dollars of space weapons. Even better for them would be a war in space as long as it doesn’t touch their factories. I know it is very hard to enforce a no weapons in space policy and we do have a no nuclear weapons in space policy but they could fall by the wayside if we formally declare space a war zone. As far as we know there is no war going on in space yet, but as more nations get into space will they take their grievances with other nations out by trying to destroy their satellites and such? Even worse will they aim space weapons at the earth? Many people believe there are already weapons in space aimed at us and at Russia. I am not saying they are nuclear, because I don’t know if anyone broke the ban on them in space. We know we have the ability and so do some other nations to shoot down satellites from earth. The thing is as bad as this is no one wants the Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. Officially declaring space a war zone would mean military bases on moons and planets and that is the last thing we need. When you think about it, shooting down satellites could drive us backward with our technology. So many things now depend on satellites such as the internet and phone calls. There are all sorts of other satellites being used for communications both secret and not. If it wasn’t for some satellites, we would never have discovered some of the ancient ruins we have lately which contribute to our knowledge of the past. Our global positioning system is based on satellites as is our weather forecasting. Even our entertainment is based on satellites. There has been a long history of satellites being used for spying and this has forced many activities by nations to be moved underground. The United States is no exception having one of the biggest underground boring programs in the world. There are even rumors we have connected bases underground which are thousands of miles away from each other. North Korea withdrew from the treaty banning nukes in space in 2003. I guess one of the problems is even though we banned nukes in space, we never banned weapons. Whether or not the U.N. declares space a war zone or not will not affect anything going on up there, but it does seem to be by its nature egging on nations to arm satellites and maybe use advanced armed vehicles in the future to launch them. It has to as I said create a need for more weapons in space and give an excuse for us to send up more. I can hear the politicians now, “We had to send those weapons into space because space is a war zone and we need to protect ourselves.” What ever happened to those thoughts we had years ago where we would do peaceful exploration of space in the hope of meeting friendly extraterrestrials? Almost all of the old movies showed peaceful ships from earth flying out into space not ships which were armed to the teeth. We just didn’t think that way, but this might be changing. Will we have a problem where India and Pakistan shoot at each other’s launches or there is a misunderstanding between the U.S. and Russia which leads to vehicles being destroyed? It is time for a new treaty, but I know I am being very naïve, because there are powers that want this but wouldn’t it be a tribute to humanity if we could all get together and sign a treaty where no weapons were allowed in space. Lord knows we have enough of them on earth to be able to destroy ourselves many times over. Space is a beautiful place and we shouldn’t demean it with weapons. There was a rumor which circulated years ago saying the CIA was ready to attack a U.S. city and blame it on aliens. The idea was they were going to use aircraft which looked like UFOs. The point of this was obvious, it would be a financial boon to the weapons industry. I am not saying this is true, just that I had read it in a few different places. We think space is a peaceful place as far as conflict between nations is concerned, but I have to wonder what has happened out there we know nothing about. Have there been “accidents” which have disabled satellites which were really attacks? The United States has a facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base which tracks every satellite, even abandoned ones. They can tell if anything gets too near one. One of the problems for an attacker is if they blew up a satellite, all the shrapnel would go flying through space at incredible speeds and it would be impossible to control what it hit. If a satellite attack was going to take place it would be better to do with an electronic or laser attack which would knock the satellite out of orbit and send it falling to earth in one piece. All this talk of wars and attacks in space is harmful to our program of exploration. We need to concentrate on exploration not fighting other nations on earth. I hope we never hear the war zone declaration was approved.
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