Posted on 05/21/2005 12:51:38 AM PDT by thegreatbeast
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A scientists' group on Thursday warned the United States against weaponizing space, saying the move would be prohibitively expensive and could set off a new arms race.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group that opposes weapons in space, said the United Nations should consider drafting a treaty that would prohibit interfering with unarmed satellites, taking away any justification for putting weapons in space to protect them.
"The United States has a huge lead in the space field -- it can afford to try out the multilateral approach,'' said Jonathan Dean, a former U.S. ambassador and an adviser on global security issues.
The Union's demand comes as the administration of President Bush is reviewing the U.S. space policy doctrine. Some scientists worry that the review will set out a more aggressive policy that could lead to the greater militarization of space.
On Wednesday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters that the policy review was not considering the weaponization of space. But he said new threats to U.S. satellites have emerged in the years since the U.S. space doctrine was last reviewed in 1996, and those satellites must be protected.
"There are changes that have occurred over the last eight or nine years, and there are countries that have taken an interest in space, McClellan said. "And they have looked at things that could -- or technologies that could -- threaten our space systems. And so you obviously need to take that into account when you're updating the policy.''
The Bush administration has also included some money in the budget for space-based weapons programs to defend satellites, strike ground targets and defend against missile attacks, said Laura Grego, a scientist with the union.
Any complete weapons system in space would be very expensive, running into the many billions of dollars. Developing a shield to defend against a single missile attack would require deploying 1,000 space-based interceptors and cost anywhere between $20 billion and $100 billion, said David Wright, a union scientists and co-author of a recent report on the feasibility of space weapons.
And such a system would require a huge expansion of U.S. launching capability. The United States currently launches between 10-12 large rockets a year, while with space interceptors, it would need to launch many times more that each year.
Wright argued that space-based ground attack systems were not yet practical either. One, dubbed "Rods from God'' -- which would fire rods of tungsten from space -- would cost 50-100 times as much as a similar attack from the ground.
"The fact that it's still being considered I think suggests that there's some sort of emotional attachment to it for putting weapons in space rather than a hard-nosed analysis,'' Wright said.
Any such move would also likely draw swift international condemnation. In 2002, after the United States withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, China and Russia submitted a proposal for a new international treaty to ban weapons in outer space.
But the United States has said it sees no need for any new space arms control agreements. It is party to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits stationing weapons of mass destruction in space.
Maybe they should stick to science and leave politics to the professionals.
What kind of security advice is surrender?
The French kind?
They think having a vacuous mind makes them experts on space.
With all due respect, I think you are missing an important point. No one has an issue with putting humans in space. I'd worry about China or Russia having a weapons platform in place, but could care less about them putting men in space. Why would you worry about them putting people ion space anyhow? Russia has had them there for a very very long time.
We are already in a new arms race. China wants to weaponize space too. Yet I do not see these lefties whining about them doing it!
China is decades behind us in space. WE NEED TO KEEP IT THAT WAY.
I don't.. It just these morons who think space is thier personal playground..
Agreed....but what is the plan to handle the commies here at home? They are everywhere.
Notorious positivists.
Funny, Bush was commenting on the nature of the threats to America in the years or decades to come just this morning. Just one thing--if there is a perceived weakness the hyenas and vultures will close in for the kill. That is the rule of modern industrial society. If the carcass still has enough life to bite back, the vultures and hyenas will circle a while longer before closing in again-- a never-ending play.
In the same way that these "scientists" would, correctly, not see the utility of having a a 4 Star General or an Intel Analyst on one of their research teams - I reject the utility of their unwanted prattle WRT national defense.
Mr/Ms Prima Donna "scientist", get over yourself and get back to work.
Vader finds these scientists lack of faith disturbing.
The Union of Communist Scientists is a front group. They are a nice-sounding organization of commie leftovers against ANYTHING favorable to the US.
Yes, or, "Peoples."
Uh, huh. Sure. Concerned that Socialism isn't the dominant political system in the world.
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