Space militarisation...?

Question

Hi

I know that orbital military presence in the near future will probably consist mostly of space stations and surface based missiles to shoot them down, but is it feasible that within the next 50 / 60 years there will be space shuttles (or like space craft) which are armed and engaging each other? Or would military space craft mostly be limited to recon, electronic warfare and satellite maintenance? And if the latter would it seem feasible for one space shuttle to attempt to ram another if it was deemed important that the hostile craft be destroyed / put out of service?

Answer 1

Shuttles & spacecraft in general are very fragile- we've seen what happens if single a ceramic tile falls off!

& Space is not very forgiving if you get shipwrecked.

So I don't think they'll be arming shuttles or sticking spikes on the front (like Flash Gordon).

Answer 2

It's feasible, but not likely. As for the why they would do it? Simple, to knock out the enemies communications, navigation and tracking systems, just like they would do the same to us since we rely on them so much. The Soviets had "Killer" sats in the cold war, as far as lasers go, they are just around the bend, they already have them able to be mounted on planes (although one laser on 747 is not exactly Star Wars ;-) ) and they have smaller mobile ones on tracks that can knock out slow moving missiles and artillery shells but have not gotten a tracking system and laser system yet that can hit the fast movers in a small model. If they have this now, in 50-60 years who knows what they might have.  

Answer 3

Interesting question:We believe the future of space will be the most exciting series of events in the history of mankind and that is if we don't have a nuclear winter.

There will be armed space craft somewhat like Star Trek's "Voyager"but nothing capable of it's fictional fire power,however nothing can be left out of any equation when it comes to technological advances.

The( ramming thinking) of space vehicles banging into each other like bumper cars is abit off mainly because by the time we master this kind of space mobility we will have developed weapon systems to take care of that problem.You have said 50/60yrs we believe that within the next 25 yrs there will be space vehicles capable of sustaining orbit for years and traveling to and from the moon on regular flights.

This will all be the beginning of man kinds quest of "Going where no man has gone before"to coin a phrase of course.

It is great to imagine the possibilities.

Answer 4

You're asking if it's feasible within the next 50-60 years for nations to build space ships that attack each other in space.

I don't think it's feasible for us to have space ships attacking each other period. For what? They aren't gaining land or resources, and what are they defending? They aren't defending land or resources either.

Maybe when space travel becomes extremely common and we need "space cops" to fly around and shoot at bad guys who are firing on everyone else...and even then, that's a stretch.

Answer 5

I agree with Duncan.