Latest Trump Order Defies Original Outer Space Treaty That Specified Its Use for Peaceful Purposes

June 19, 2018 – In 1967 during the height of the Cold War confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, the issue of keeping space demilitarized was agreed to in a United Nations charter that defined sovereignty among other issues. The high ground of outer space, stated the charter, was to be an area of international cooperation both for science and in all legal aspects including exploration. The charter was modeled on the treaty governing human activity in Antarctica. In 1973 China became a signatory. But it appears that this charter is about to be violated by Donald Trump who has shown a penchant for ripping up international agreements whether to keep Iran denuclearized, or subvert existing trade relationships with allies and competitors.

Yesterday in Washington, Trump ordered the Department of Defense to create a new military branch focused on outer space. He stated, “it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space.” He went on to say his newly created Space Force would be “something.” Trump continued in his remarks stating “space is a war-fighting domain just like the land, air, and sea.”

When asked how this idea emerged from the President’s consciousness, he continued “I was saying it the other day, cause we’re doing a tremendous amount of work in space, I said, maybe we need a new force. We’ll call it the space force. And I was not really serious. And then I said, what a great idea. Maybe we’ll have to do that. That could happen. That could be the big, breaking story.”

I gather none of the coterie of experts surrounding the President mentioned the 1967 treaty to keep space demilitarized. But Trump wants space to be a “war-fighting domain” and one which is dominated by the superior weapons and military might of the United States. He is not the first U.S. President to talk about the militarization of space. Ronald Reagan back in the 1980s announced a space weapons defense system that was eventually given the name “Star Wars” after a popular series of movies released during his presidency. But Reagan’s Star Wars was largely fictional in nature, a propaganda weapon to destabilize the Soviet Union which post-Reagan may have broken up in some part because the Soviets bought into the idea and bankrupted themselves trying to counter a technology that didn’t exist.

But today, what is good for the American goose appears to be good for the Russian and Chinese ganders. China has already demonstrated it can launch a rocket to intercept and destroy a satellite in orbit. And in the last week, Russia announced the development of a laser cannon which when fired from Earth can destroy space debris in orbit. This new Russian invention no doubt could easily be redirected to destroy satellites in low-Earth orbit.

The pioneering of weapons in space belongs to the Russians. A Soviet cosmonaut took a handgun with him to orbit, not to be used there, but after landing back on Earth. It was seen as necessary should a curious or hungry bear come along while the cosmonauts waited to be rescued by ground crews.

Both the Americans and Soviets in the last years of the Cold War ran covert military space programs. The Soviets was known by the code name Almaz, a military space station with a crew of three on board.  The Americans had MOL. Its successor is the military’s mini-space shuttle, the X-37B, a robot spy spaceship that has been in operation since 2010 and orbits for up to two years at a time. Only the Pentagon knows what’s on board.

But what Trump envisions may be more like the gung-ho nonsense portrayed in science fiction novels such as Robert Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers,” an army of space cadets fighting aliens to save Earth. Only in Trump’s case, the aliens he intends to fight will all be down here on the ground.

A space police force that is international in its composition may, at some point in the near future, be a consideration. With the proliferation of commercial space ventures, currently mostly American in origin, the high ground of space may soon be owned and exploited for profit. There are a growing number of companies that want to mine the Moon and asteroids. There are companies planning to put hotels in orbit, on the Moon, or at Lagrange points where they can become exotic destinations. There are ventures planning to go to Mars and colonize it. If all of these come to fruition then space will need some kind of policing to ensure no one is poaching.

On “Star Talk Radio” back in 2013, Neil Degrasse Tyson talked about war in space as being inevitable because we are human. He used the example of the many wars fought over the centuries here on Earth. War is in our nature states Tyson.

Maybe we cannot rise above our nature, but in Antarctica, we have since 1959, where no shots have been fired as nations cooperate in scientific endeavours. If we can do it on that continent where we see conditions down here on Earth as close to those we would find on the Moon and Mars, then why can’t we achieve the same in space?

Shouldn’t the conditions of space alone make it imperative that we never exceed friendly competition and extoll cooperation as the principle for are extraterrestrial adventures?

Or is that just too “Star Trek” for some?

It certainly seems to be for Donald Trump with his latest “I was not really serious” musings which now may take all of humanity down a road to unintended consequences.