Star wars: a new hope for arms control in space

July 8, 2010 at 9:58 am | Posted in Space Law Current Events | Leave a comment

by Sara M. Langston with the blog faculty

Source: New Scientist

IT STARTS with a handful of missiles taking out orbiting satellites. The shrapnel destroys more satellites and triggers a chain reaction, generating yet more high-speed debris. Before long, we’re trapped on Earth in the nightmare scenario: space is a no-go zone, made too dangerous to use for generations by countless chunks of junk.

That is the risk of “space war” that the US White House seeks to avoid with its National Space Policy, released on 28 June. The policy reopens the door to international arms-control measures against space weapons, reversing the 2006 policy of George W. Bush’s administration, which ruled out such talks.

Crafting such an agreement is easier said than done, thanks to issues created by technologies that are dual-use, in that they can be used for peaceful or defensive purposes as well as for attacking other countries’ satellites.

“Dual-use technology will hugely complicate the issue of agreements,” says Joan Johnson-Freese of the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. For example, missiles that can shoot down other missiles to shield a country from attack could also be used to destroy a satellite in space.Indeed, there is “no fundamental difference” between the missiles used in each application, says Ray Williamson of the Secure World Foundation (SWF) in Washington DC…more