Space Force - Draft - ISME 2019 Conference

Title: Space Force: Tomorrow’s Eco-Warriors Author: Dr. Steven C. Starke Abstract: While the explicit declaration of the mandate of a military space force may be relatively clear, the short term aims of such a military force, once established, are less so. Aside from the possibilities of resurrecting a Star Wars program or a replacement of NSAS style programs with a more militaristic bent, there seems little to recommend itself as a potential mandate for any military focused space force to follow in the immediate future. This paper will argue that the best mandate for the immediate direction of any newly created military space force is to solve the problem of space debris in Earth’s orbit. The problem of space debris in Earth’s orbit is at once urgent and immaterial. On the one hand, instances such as the recent loss of Russia’s control over a satellite illustrate the urgency of the potential dangers of being locked onto the Earth for the near future. Alternatively, much like Kant’s guarantee of perpetual peace, this problem will eventually be solved by the natural progression of humanity’s drive to progress. Nonetheless, our attempt at addressing the issue is imperative for present and near future persons utilizing the benefits of space travel and exploration. Specifically, within a military context, this is an implicit area of denial effect. Without the use of the space arena, many essential military and governmental services are lost. This constitutes a threat to every nation with such space dependent systems. Further, as an implicit function of the military is to promote the well-being of the citizenry, the potential loss of future research and exploration possibilities becomes the responsibility of the military to prevent. Thus, the problem of space debris in Earth’s orbit is an environmental problem with potentially immediate and catastrophic consequences. The scale of the problem, and the global nature of it, requires, at the least, it being addressed on a national level. One approach to this problem would be the incorporation of a solution into the immediate mandate of the United States Space Force (USSF). This mandate would need to direct the USSF to focus on the controlled clean-up of Earth’s orbit as a necessary precursor to any other space related endeavor. By way of analogy, if it were becoming increasingly dangerous to traverse the world’s oceans, and the US needed to utilize them for necessary civilian and military systems, then the US Navy’s immediate concern would be to return the oceans to a state of safe use for the US and its allies. The USSF ought to be no different. Allaying an obvious objection, it is entirely plausible that the costs, fiscal and otherwise, of this clean-up can be addressed in other areas of foreign relations, and might even result in a greater benefit than a cooperative defrayment of costs. This unilateral solution, however, is an imperfect one. A more ideal solution would be to subsume the responsibility of space to the United Nations, and empower them to do it. This would mean that an international organization would have authority over individual nations’ uses of space. Among the several implications, this would be a significant step toward a Kantian notion of perpetual peace, in the long term, and, in the short term, a limited guarantee of the safe and reliable use of space for all nations capable of utilizing it. The immediate result would be akin to governance over a natural resource by a scrupulously neutral authority. Key Words: Applied Ethics, Military Ethics, Environmental Ethics, Kant, Space Force 1 Space Force: Tomorrow’s Eco-Warriors Dr. Steven C. Starke Currently, there over half a million pieces of space junk whizzing around Earth.1 While the rising threat of these floating time bombs is a major concern for any nation and any branch of their military, a dedicated Space Force could be the best answer to this particular problem. One way of motivating this project would be to consider all of the threats facing humanity from space, and assessing this as the most important. That method seems, prima facie, a fruitless endeavor. Another way would be from the ground up, to consider what any newly created Space Force would be created to do, and work forwards from there. This paper will attempt to show that the most immediate task of a newly created Space Force is to clean up the orbital debris currently encompassing Earth. This will be shown by first considering the limits placed on the role of a Space Force by the government which created it. After this, a brief consideration of the kinds of tasks a Space Force might be required to address will further restrict the mission of a new Space Force. Finally, an ideal and non-ideal version of Space Force will be introduced, and their distinctions explicated. Each consideration recommends orbital clean-up as a major, and immediate, task to undertake by any new Space Force. The Role of a Government: Among the many approaches to the question of how a Space Force ought to operate there are a few limiting factors that narrow our options. The first consideration is the purpose of government in general, as an umbrella dictum for all parts of such an organization. Another limiting factor is the purpose of a military organization acting on behalf of a nation. A third consideration is the question of what is practicable given the challenges it will be expected to address and the resources it might have at its disposal to do so. Within these constraints, there is still wide latitude of freedom in how a proposed Space Force could reasonably be expected to operate. In terms of the most fundamental purpose of government, one popular starting point would be the physical protection of its citizenry. Without this principle as its most fundamental function, then a government ceases to be a government and would be more accurately described as a corporation, generously speaking, or a gang, less generously. This principle has wide support: Hobbes argues for this conception of government in his Leviathan2, Locke agrees in his Two Treatises of Government3, Kant “More than 500,000 pieces of debris, or “space junk,” are tracked as they orbit the Earth. They all travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft.” (Retrieved 6/24/19: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html) 2 “From this fundamental law of Nature, by which men are commanded to endeavour peace, is derived this second law, ‘that a man be willing, when others are so too, as far-forth as for peace and defence of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things, and be contented with so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men against himself.’ For as long as every man holdeth this right of doing anything he liketh, so long are all men in the condition of war.” (Hobbes, Leviathan, Ch. 14, 5-6) 3 Due to the dangers of the state of Nature “it is not without reason that he seeks out and is willing to join in society with others who are already united, or have a mind to unite for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties and estates…” (Locke, Two Treatises of Government, II.9.123, pg. 159, 1823) 1 2 does in his Cosmopolitan Aim4, and Rousseau does in his The Social Contract5. Further, this principle is scalable, that is, it functions in the same manner and with the same force of reason at all levels of government. Thus, this principle has the practical advantages of being well fleshed-out and of being flexible to suit varying levels of government, from decisions of the sovereign down to the smallest exercise of government power. As a close second to the fundamental principle of government, a government (or a good government as some of the previous philosophers would say) should prioritize the quality of life its citizens enjoy. However, it should be noted that if a conflict between the safety and the prosperity of the citizenry, the safety of the citizenry comes before their comfort. With these two principles at the root of government, then any organization it generates, or works with it as a supplement to its main task, will also be checked by them as a limitation of acceptable action. That is, any such organization would be forbidden from harming the citizenry directly or indirectly, and may only harm their quality of life in service to their safety. These, then, are the principles composing the first bottleneck in our investigation of the mandate of a new Space Force. The second consideration, of the purpose of a military organization acting on behalf of a government, requires even less explication than the first, as there are already many answers available. The most germane of these readily available answers are from the United States Navy (USN)6 and the United States Coast Guard (USCG)7. Both of these branches of the military take the safety of the citizenry as a priority, noting the offensive and defensive measures that might be necessary to secure their goals. In addition, they both make note of the second governmental priority. As part of their mission statements, the USN claims to maintain the freedom of the seas, and the USCG claims to ensure maritime stewardship. Regardless of the specific phrasing, it seems clear that both of these branches take on the role of improving the quality of the lives of its citizenry as part of their foundational principles, at least within the contexts of their practical spheres of concern. Before continuing on to the last constraint, of the practical limitations, a better understanding of the challenges it might face needs to be considered. After that, a more specific recommendation for the mission of a Space Force can be offered. For now, we can adopt a general outline for the mission statement: The purpose of a Space Force is to defend, secure, and manage, extraterrestrial interests for “Need forces men, so enamored otherwise of their boundless freedom, into this state of constraint. They are forced to it by the greatest of all needs, a need they themselves occasion inasmuch as their passions keep them from living long together in wild freedom.” (Kant, Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View (1784). Translation by Lewis White Beck. From Immanuel Kant, “On History,” The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1963) 5 “What is the object of any political association? It is the protection and prosperity of its members.” Rousseau, The Social Contract, Trans. Cranston, pg. 130,, Penguin Classics, London, 1968.) 6 The Mission Statement of the USN: “The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas.” Retrieved on 6/16/19 from https://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/swmag/Pages/Our-Navy%27s-Mission-How-the-surface-forces-fitin.aspx. 7 Mission Statement of the USCG: “The mission of the United States Coast Guard is to ensure our Nation's maritime safety, security and stewardship.” Retrieved on 6/16.19 from https://www.work.uscg.mil/Missions/. 4 3 its parent organization. While this might be superfluous in some areas, it does contain, at the least, all the necessary parts to follow in the same vain as the mission statements of the USN and the USCG. Challenges to be Addressed: (expand) The idea of a Space Force, as already noted, is a solution to a problem. However, before that solution can be properly implemented, the nature and particulars of the problem it is attempting to address must be understood. There are several problems that a directed agency operating in space might address, but the ones it is best suited to address are limited in number. Given the most fundamental role of government, a Space Force must first prioritize detecting and preventing species ending threats. Similarly, because of the nature of economic and social globalization, a Space Force would need to prioritize any significant threats to life on Earth coming from space. In addition to ensuring that this blue marble continues to spin uneventfully onwards, the secondary task of a Space Force is to improve the conditions of life for the rest of its constituent citizenry. This entails removing as much as possible the orbital detritus which poses a potential threat to future space related operations, generating useable intelligence about Earthly affairs, and policing the equipment already established in space. A third set of concerns might be the actions it takes specifically on behalf of its progenitor, but this is also where certain important distinctions come into play. The first priority of a Space Force must be to protect humanity as a whole, and protecting its individual members is a close second. Threats from space can be categorized in any number of ways, however it seems prudent to do so in a way that recognizes the severity of threat that some potentially hazardous object might represent. For instance, a Tunguska-like object coming into Earth’s atmosphere again might constitute an existential threat to all humanity, however, the loss of direct manual control of Foton-M by Russian ground control, which is still orbiting on autopilot, is almost no threat at all. Both of these extremes, and everything in between, must be vigilantly monitored, and contingencies plans developed to deal with them. Thankfully, several solutions already exist for such threats, so, for this area of their responsibilities, the main task of a Space Force would be to adopt, refine, and, should the need arise, to enact them. Such copy-paste solutions, assuming appropriate care is taken in transferring them to a new agency, would allow Space Force to more quickly accomplish its first task, in readiness if not actual action, and thereby take up its secondary task. Once the status quo can be confidently maintained, the other area of government responsibility comes into play. After securing space for humanity, as an environment to work in and as a location to develop resources in, a Space Force would have to take up the task of promoting the quality life for humanity and its individuals. The three most obvious extensions to the activities already recommended for a Space Force would be: 1) in addition to taking out active threats, to proactively deal with potential threats already in the Earth’s orbit, 2) in addition to monitoring local space, to turn inwards and gather intelligence about Earth itself, and 3) in addition to directing and redirecting objects from outer space, to coordinate the safe interplay of equipment both in and passing through Earth’s orbit. Such tasks are necessary for the effective use and further development of space as a uniquely beneficial environment. 4 Last, there is a tertiary task for a Space Force, namely as an agent of national or trans-national force. The specifics of this would depend on the genesis of the Space Force in question. While there are several possibilities, there are two that seem germane. The first is the ideal theory version of origination, in which a Space Force would be created under the auspice of the United Nations, a United Nations Space Force (UNSF). The second is the non-ideal theory version, in which the United States creates its own Space Force unilaterally, a United States Space Force (USSF). Ideal Option: In an ideal world, a Space Force, given its planetary implications, would be created under the control of an organization with the complete global interest in mind. The obvious choice for such an organization would be the United Nations. Assuming that the member nations of the UN did indeed collaborate to generate a UNSF, then it would have some more specific directives in addition to the ones outlined above. Specifically, they would be responsible for a measuring of international policing, and a role analogous to terrestrial air traffic control, but in space. As mentioned earlier, the function of any government is to secure and promote the wellbeing of its citizenry. In the case of the UN, that is essentially the entirety of the human population. In fact, given the relative completeness of this representation, it seems fair to place a paternalistic burden on the UN for the remainder of humanity as well, as its own charter would seem to indicate it desires.8 Thus, at least one important function of a UNSF would be to protect the interests of all humanity, not merely the wealthy, or the politically convenient. This means not allowing one nation to deny another access to space, or allowing any similar such international conflicts to extend into space, and taking on the responsibility of adjudicating between national and partisan interests when it comes to the potentially limited resources of space. It is this latter responsibility that allows for an expansion of power within its operational scope. On the narrow side of the spectrum, a UNSF could decide to be a restricted entity, essentially ensuring a superficial peace in space, while acting minimally to block terrestrial conflicts from expanding upwards, employing a sort of literal ‘sky’s the limit’ policy on conflict. For example, if two nations are engaged in hard and/or soft power conflict on Earth, then the active hostilities would be prevented from entering space. This is not to say that satellite communications would be jammed, or indeed that any active efforts would be made to prevent the terrestrial side of the conflict form proceeding apace. This kind of pedantic neutrality might be a practical necessity of resource management in the nascent formations of a UNSF, but it does not accord with the spirt or the principles of the UN Charter which demands the relief from the “scourge of war” and to “promote social progress”.9 A broader understanding of the responsibilities of a UNSF would be to act in all the ways a narrower version would, but without the omissions allowing for conflict on the ground to continue. This From the UN Charter preamble, indicating the means intended to achieve their stated ends: “to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples.” Retrieved 6/21/19 from https://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/preamble/index.html 9 https://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/preamble/index.html 8 5 would include imposing sanctions and possibly even actively responding to aggressors until they cease hostilities. In this broad interpretation of a UNSF mandate would also be the mechanisms necessary for the UN to enforce its principles across the globe, thereby elevating it to the international governing institution it aspired to be. While this would seem to be the best option, in terms of conflict resolution, and sustainable practices in space exploration, it also seems the least likely, as it requires individual national governments to cede a measure of their power.10 Related to this UNSF possibility is the notion of an independent worldwide Space Force created ex nihilo by all, or most, national governments for similarly international purposes. In this instance, then the mandate of such an independent Space Force would have the same origins as the UNSF, specifically the obligation of governments to protect and promote the well-being of its citizenry. Thus, all of the same restrictions, freedoms, and conclusions would apply to this conception of a Space Force as well. However, regardless of the particulars of how such an internationally supported Space Force might come about, it seem much more likely that one or more national Space Force(s) will be generated by, and in the interests of, particular national governments. Non-Ideal Option: In a more practical vein, it seems plausible that the first Space Force, or first several Space Forces, will be instituted by independent nations for nationalistic purposes. It might be suspected that such a genesis would remove the rather incumbent first two priorities mentioned earlier, to be humanity’s lookout and guardian when it comes to extraterrestrial threats. This does no such thing, however. Any Space Force is responsible for safeguarding the planet, and, if there are multiple such Space Forces, it is their responsibility to work together when it comes to these aspects of their responsibilities. A threat to the planet, or humanity at large, is a threat to every nation’s citizenry. The world has become too interdependent, in many ways, for any single nation which is capable of fielding a Space Force to simply ignore a significant threat to any part of the globe. Thus, regardless of the origination, each government has an obligation to protect the whole as part of their obligation to protect their small part. Nonetheless, a unilaterally created Space Force, such as a USSF, will have slightly different priorities, and therefore a slightly different mandate, then an internationally generated and supported one. The most obvious difference between a UNSF and a USSF would be the obligation to act in a nonbiased manner to all nations and peoples. While a UNSF would require such neutrality, a USSF would require the precise opposite. As part of its mandate, a USSF should protect and further the interests of the US in space before any other nations, and perhaps to the detriment of other nations attempting to achieve the same kind of space power. The recent Defense Intelligence Agency’s report “Challenges to Security in Space” outlines several potential vulnerabilities and dependencies of the nation on space based technology. Securing and hardening these insufficiencies in the system would be a high priority for a USSF. In addition to defending against national threats, a USSF would be responsible of actively advancing the agenda of its government. Interrupting satellite communications, privileging certain 10 This seems likely to be viewed as a negative, despite the arguments for the abandonment of some rights in favor of the guarantee of the rest, a la Hobbs, Locke, Kant, Rousseau, etc. 6 research programs for the specific betterment of the US over more globally oriented ones, and even the manner in which it preforms the first two sets of obligations for any Space Force, would all be expected of such a partisan entity. At an extreme, it might be permissible, or even proscribed, for such an entity to take as its first order of business the capture or destruction of extra-national technology already in orbit, thus establishing space supremacy, and truly winning the space race.11 Before such intermediate actions can be decided upon, there is already enough moral scaffolding in place to attempt a preliminary mandate for a USSF, one that conforms to the obligations of the nation it represents, and which allows it the freedom to fulfill those obligations in a continually changing environment. In line with the USCG and the USN Mission Statements, I would recommend the following as a preliminary United States Space Force Mission Statement, to be edited as additional limiting factors become know: The mission of the United States Space Force is to protect the extraterrestrial interests of the citizens of the United States, to detect and deter threats to the planet and the nation, and to ensure the continued use of space as a free and clear zone of operation. Conclusion: This proposal is not an ideal version of the mission statement, but it does cover the three necessary areas of concern for any national Space Force: 1) it protects humanity, 2) it promotes the quality of life for all humanity, and 3) it focuses on the interests of the nation that created it. Each one of these considerations recommends, as an immediately prioritized task, the cleanup of Earth’s orbital debris. In order to protect humanity, or a specific subset of it, from extraterrestrial threats, a Space Force must have a relatively safe and clear environment. Without such operational security, the whole of humanity is put at risk by any small piece of space garbage that might happen to be drifting about in an inconvenient way. In order to promote the quality of life for humanity, or a specific subset of it, then orbital cleanup is directly recommended, for both its own sake, and in service to the Earth directed monitoring and traffic control tasks suggested by this second area of concern. As for the national interests of its originator(s), orbital cleanup is also recommended as a first priority. The carrot portion which recommends this is the freedom to expand technological capacities in newly safe areas of orbit and near-Earth space. The stick portion of the recommendation is that if the orbital debris becomes too dense, then humanity will be denied access to orbit and beyond until orbital decay sends enough debris raining down out of the sky. Thus it can be seen that any Space Force has significant incentive to clean up Earth’s orbit as quickly as possible to clear the path for the real progress in space exploration and research. 11 The true space race is not a race to the door, but a race to close it on others. 7