Going boldly - if not baulked by scrap metal

It's real. President Trump has signed into being the US Space Force. Previously it was part of the US Air Force, but now, from 20th December, it has its own separate identity. And to start with, as many as 16,000 persons transferred from the Air Force. In time, people in the Army and Navy will be able to join them.

Lots of detailed work has already started, to turn the Space Force into a fully-developed military asset. Inevitably it's going to resemble something out of Star Trek, or even Star Wars, if only because these are ready-made models that any American will already be familiar with. Expect a Space Academy, Star Trek uniforms, and ultimately a USS Enterprise with a mission to go boldly. And of course, young girls will be able to fall in love with a Starship Trooper, for real.

So much for the fanciful stuff. What's the down-to-earth plan? What can really be done with current technology? I imagine that a series of space stations geared to military use could be constructed, with intercept X-wings or even Milennium Falcons for constant space patrols. Equipped with lasers, naturally. Meanwhile, some other countries will be doing the same, so that the Earth will be orbited by a large number of Space Bases, all observing each other with beady eyes and ready, if necessary, to send forth spacecraft to engage each other in deadly combat. Real dog fights - all at warp speed.

Well, I'd rather they slug it out up there with lasers, than do it down here with nuclear missiles.

One thing that bothers me is the amount of 'space junk' that will be created. You know, burnt-out hulks, and all the other debris discarded by those space stations, such as coke cans. What happens to it all? Does it just spiral down towards Earth in a degrading orbit, and burn up in the upper atmosphere (with no great harm done) - or will large heavy bits (those burnt-out hulks) make it through the upper atmosphere, and crash-land on places like Mid Sussex (with lots of harm done)?

One snag for the military bods flying up there - or flying back - will be the thousands of little satellites now proposed, so that everybody on Earth, no matter where, can get High-Speed Broadband. Thousands of them will be needed. They'll be put into orbit, a dense grid in the sky, all at the same altitude. Getting through that lot without hitting one might be a nightmare. If I were good at maths, I'd love to calculate how close each satellite would be to its neighbours, and what would be the chances of bumping into one when rocketing up to a Space Base. It would surely be like flying through an asteroid belt, except that you couldn't put up your force shield and batter a way through, nor shoot them out of the way, because that would disrupt Global Broadband Coverage.

The one good thing I can see about all those orbiting Space Bases is that should a rogue meteorite head for Earth, the firepower to perturb its Earth-destroying trajectory would be ready to hand. And, surely, the various Space Nations would all cooperate and combine so that the meteorite is well and truly nudged off course? Or indeed any Death Star manned by beings from the planet Malevolor? At least one hopes.

Should Britain get into all this Space Force stuff? It'll cost. Perhaps they could scrap HS2 and establish a Starfleet Command instead with the same money? There must be a few mothballed RAF bases in Eastern England that would be perfect for this.