Yet what Trump has put together is fundamentally different, and potentially more destabilizing, than the previous incarnation. Bush administration repurposed after 9/11 to focus on the war in Afghanistan. ItвЂ™s a revival of a Reagan-era initiative that had been set up to oversee missile defense, which the George W. The Space Force is not exactly a new idea. It is only necessary for the new President to unleash America's potential-once unleashed, American innovators will move these dreams toward reality faster than anyone can imagine.With a stroke of a pen, Donald Trump created an entirely new branch of the armed forces last year. Americans are leaders in every one of these fields. This list of goals sounds audacious, perhaps outrageous, but it is entirely within the capability and character of the people who built the Transcontinental Railroad, the Hoover Dam, and conquered a continent. The American people must be the first to be ready. Interstellar spaceflight will be the ultimate expression of humanity mastering space travel. The US will fly the first mission to another star. The United States will design, construct, and seek to test this capability in the current administration, and aim to maintain a standby global defense capability soon thereafter. This planetary defense capability will initially start small, providing adequate defense against both 50-meter and 300-meter diameter objects with years of advance warning, and be built to provide comprehensive protection against extinction-level events. The US will build the first comprehensive system to defend Earth from hazardous asteroids and comets. The logistics system to create this space-power grid would require moving millions of metric tons of satellites to geostationary orbit and, consequently, will be orders of magnitude larger than any envisioned government-centric space program. No single innovation in space could be as transformational as unlocking the vast potential of space-based solar energy generation to power Earth's electrical needs that could provide the hundreds of terawatts of renewable energy necessary to provide first-world living standards to the entire planet in a green and environmentally sustainable manner. The US will build the first profitable solar power satellite. America must lead this process.ДЄ Russian Cargo Ship Burns Up, But ISS Astronauts WonвЂ™t Go Hungry Arrow The trillions of dollars in mineral wealth from asteroids can fuel a vibrant in-space economy capable of lifting up all humankind. The US will be the first nation to mine an asteroid.

Interested readers can view our complete recommendations, but a new Trump national space policy should declare: The Trump administration has an opportunity to transcend pessimism in space and focus America where it thrives: aggressive yet peaceful competition. The first step to make space great again is for the United States to offer a constructive vision that can satisfy many American space needs, including defense. The opinions herein are those of the authors alone and are not necessarily the views of Air University, the US Air Force, or the US government. Space Horizons is a research group chartered by the Air University to explore the future of American space activity.

Major Brent Ziarnick, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Garretson, Everett Dolman, and Coyote Smith are members of the United States Air Force's Space Horizons team.

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