space warfare xviii rocketpunk manifesto

#SPACE WARFARE XVIII ROCKETPUNK MANIFESTO FREE#

Or, in the postnuclear age, from any kind of warfare that any player can hope to survive. But this is true of civil space infrastructure wherever it is located, so it does not distinguish orbital warfare from any other kind of space warfare. It would have to be 'limited,' because of the great vulnerability of spacehabs to attack. What would a war between rival stations or habs in Earth orbital space be like? But if Earth orbital space is home to increasingly autonomous powers, they can have rivalries, crises, and potentially warfare. Most likely an ambiguous welter of authority in space will merely provide billable hours for lawyers. If cycler ships are used, Earth orbital space is probably the one destination they all call at each time around. The asteroids have raw material, but Earth and its orbital space have the markets (and source of immigrants). Independent or quasi-independent space habs are as plausible in Earth orbital space (or Mars, etc.) as they are in the asteroid belt, and perhaps more so. I have discussed this previously in the context of rethinking space piracy, and have also discussed alternatives to the familiar 'Westphalian' world of absolute sovereign states. In these circumstances, so long as someone can pay the bills a flag of convenience is barely short of outright autonomy. Spacecraft, other than shuttle types, remain in space, merely docking with other spacecraft from time to time.

Ships at sea have to put into port sooner or later, entering someone's territorial waters. Over time, how these spacecraft are 'flagged' may have as little to do with actual ownership as it does at sea today.

Some belong to national governments, some are jointly operated (like the ISS today), or belong in various ways to a host of entities such as NGOs and private firms. In an early-space setting they'd have plenty on their hands to survive, let alone conduct operations against each other.īut suppose that, in a century or two, Earth orbital space is home to a welter of stations, habs, ships, and other platforms. Forces in high orbit or deep space would be cut off from their home bases for the duration, on both sides. Low orbit is too vulnerable to surface-launched kinetics, and shuttle types are especially vulnerable during ascent and return. In fact an all out war between Earth powers would reduce Earth's inner orbital space to a no man's land. The most notable example is Ministry of Space, but I believe there are others. Much more recently a micro-genre of alternate history rocketpunk has appeared, centering on World War II. In Cold War days there was a whole subgenre that dealt with orbital warfare, in a near future setting - back when that meant circa 1965 - and a Cold War context. It can then be engaged at merely Enormous Range, at the translunar fringe of orbital space or even beyond.īut what if both the attacker and defender are in Earth orbital space to begin with? An approaching deep space force can be detected at Stupendous Range, its orbit telegraphing its region of origin and therefore probably its intent. The attackers might come from Mars, or Callisto, or Sigma Draconis IV, without really changing the story line.Īnd much of what I have said here follows from that assumption. In this type of setting, where entire regions of local space are normally under a single authority, any enemy must come from some other local region, arriving from deep space. Or at least someone does, such as a trade federation. But as a rule, any planet that wants to count for anything controls its own orbital space.

#SPACE WARFARE XVIII ROCKETPUNK MANIFESTO FREE#

The broad mainstream tradition of space SF tradition is to treat planets as analogous to island countries, with their surrounding orbital space as 'offshore waters.' In the more picaresque settings an occasional orbital station around some backward colony planet might become a Free Haven, welcoming all comers with no questions asked and fewer answered.

Space warfare xviii rocketpunk manifesto