In the 1940s, the Air Force was established as a military branch, growing and extending out thanks to new technological advancements. In December 2019, a similar thing happened – Donald Trump signed the US Space Force Act, extending an orbit-and-beyond branch of the military called the Space Force.
For now, the department resides within the Air Force. This year, there were about 1,000 Air Force Academy graduates, and 90 of them became the first officers commissioned into the new organization. The young cadets stepped into the position because they’re interested in the Space Force prospectively being a military presence on the Moon.
However, the recruitment doesn’t mean that the chosen cadets will be a human presence in space. According to Space Force officials, they won’t be sending anyone into orbit any time soon. Those commissioned into the Space Force will be in charge of ground support to the nation’s space assets – like robots. Meaning, robots will be stationed on the Moon, and Space Force officers will be controlling them from here on Earth.
Astronaut, Maj. Gen. John Shaw said during the AFWERX Engage Space event on September 29th that anyone joining the Space Force might go into space someday, but not any time soon.
He said:
I think it will happen. But I think it’s a long way off. First, space isn’t really all that habitable for humans. We’ve learned that since our early space days. And the second is, we’re getting darned good at this robotics thing in space.
You know, the best robots that humans have ever created are probably satellites — either ones that explore other planets or operated within our own Earth/moon system. GPS satellites might be among those. They’re incredible machines, and we’re only getting better with machine learning and artificial intelligence. We’re going to have an awful lot of automated and autonomous systems operating in Earth and lunar orbit and solar orbit in the days and years to come doing national security space activity.
For example, DARPA is developing a robotic arm that can be attached to a free-flying spacecraft. The flying robot will navigate to satellites to conduct orbital adjustments, repairs, or install new payloads. SpaceLogistics will provide the spacecraft, and DARPA the arm. The machine is already in the works and is expected to be in orbit in late 2022.
Another robot in the works is ROBOpilot by the Air Force Research Laboratory. It can fly planes on its own! Plus, there’s the secretive X-37b space plane, which is already in use and flying unmanned – taking off, carrying things into orbit, deploying satellites, and returning to Earth all without a pilot on board.
Nevertheless, Shaw believes that in the future, humans will get their chance. He said:
At some point, yes, we will be putting humans into space. They may be operating a command center somewhere in the lunar environment or someplace else that we are continuing to operate largely autonomous architecture. I just don’t know when. And it’s anybody’s guess to pick the year when that happens.
After all, the Space Force has been looking into ways to enable a permanent military presence on the Moon. It’s been working with NASA on a study to figure out if fusion energy could be a solution to power such a base. If they’re doing all of that, then it is highly likely that humans will eventually go to the Moon and join the robots!
