SPACE FORCE

I am not at all impressed by Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s plans for a future US-style space force for Australia.

There is certainly enough junk in orbit around the Earth to make future space travel fraught with extreme danger, let alone adding to it by making outer space a war zone.

Companies like Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service have already placed thousands of satellites in orbit, making astronomers’ job of spotting asteroid threats to the Earth much more difficult now.

The Soviet Union tried to warn President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s that his new Star Wars plan for a missile defence shield was only taking the arms race into outer space.

When is the exploitation of the space theatre enough?

Australia should be setting an example for other countries by cutting back on military spending, not increasing it.

We should be a peaceful nation, and if that means being unprotected from foreign threats, then so be it. Dave Fredericks, Toowoomba