/sci/ - Science & Math

>>12294740
I think the US military is going beyond Earth orbit with or without China. Space Domain Awareness is extremely important for Earth orbit, so I imagine that it will become important as more and more spacecraft are sent into cislunar space. Some form of GPS will also be wanted in cislunar space, and given that the military is traditionally the major player in the field then I expect them to be a major player for a cislunar GPS.

For sending military personnel into space though? I don't know. Even if China were to build out alot of stuff in cislunar space, would that give the military an excuse to go there with people? If anything I think military personnel in space may be limited to three roles for a long time: (1) scientific research, (2) logistics and transport, and (3) disaster management. Who knows though, maybe spaceflight will experience exponential growth soon and we'll see Moon bases and space stations popping up like weeds, giving the military an excuse to put people out there to enforce security.