Treaty poopers: Think Tank warns US needs actual 'Guardians of the Galaxy' before China claims the Moon

A report has warned that China's "space habitation and lunar ambitions" can pose a security threat to the United States. It states that the two countries could fight "over control of lunar resources and territory" as Beijing prepares to land humans on the Moon, as does the US, Defense One reported. The paper by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies paints a bleak outlook for the space race, which is being led by the two countries. According to the author, active-duty US Space Force (USSF) personnel would need to be stationed on the Moon and the space station to defend against China’s alleged military-focused space initiatives. Retired USSF Colonel Kyle Pumroy also slammed the US human spaceflight and Moon programs that he says have suffered because of "inconsistency in vision, policy, and funding", and this has led "China to gain steady ground over time."

Pumroy says it is crucial to immediately develop a military human spaceflight program which allows for Guardians in space. China's space agency has taken huge strides in the cosmos, completing the Tiangong Space Station in 2022 and landing rovers on the Moon. Its next step is to send humans to the Moon, a target the US is also working towards. While Donald Trump has asserted that the US would leave China behind, the latter's progress in space missions means that it is not far behind either.

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Report claims “hard power” needed in new space race

However, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans military activities in space and states that no country can stake a claim to the Moon. But Pumroy says the US might have to abandon it as China has a "record of ignoring treaty agreements and territorial aggression". He claims the habitat it wants to build on the Moon is aligned with the country's military. “When territorial conquest, the potential for economic gain, and national interests overlap, societies seek to establish favourable norms and standards and do so using various degrees of hard power,” he wrote, adding "hard power will ultimately matter in this new space race."

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The Space Force was established in 2019 and the Guardians (its members) manage space launches, maintain GPS, weather and communication satellites, and work on other related things. However, the paper says that a military human spaceflight program with Title 10 authorities should instead be created. This would grant the Department of Defense the authority to organise, train, and deploy military forces globally.