[Animats]

That's a useful analysis.

Nuclear power gives you more energy, but you're still limited by how much reaction mass you can carry.

The plans that work look like early 1960s NASA plans - build infrastructure in orbit, assemble nuclear power interplanetary craft in orbit, nuclear power is from planetary orbit to planetary orbit only. That was Wernher von Braun's "Man Will Conquer Space Soon" plan.[1]

The Apollo program, at US$20 billion, was the economy version. To the moon and back, no space station, no permanent infrastructure in space.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz7njI0wEIw

[asdff]

It makes you wonder though, should you set up such space based infrastructure, is it even worth publicizing lest you trigger an arms race?

[sandworm101]

You couldnt do it without publicizing. Space stuff is big and loud. Space itself is transparent. Doing big secret stuff in space is extrodinarily difficult.

[dylan604]

You can't hide that your about to do something in space because launches are loud and obvious. However, once in space, you can absolutely hide what you are actually doing. We still don't really know what the Air Force Space Plane does while in orbit.

[adrianN]

We might not know, but how about China?

[asdff]

There are spy satellites that we know nothing about in orbit, only until someone like Trump leaks an image on twitter. Who is to say where that line of development ended, if ever, given so little is spoken publicly of these efforts? Perhaps others could detect some of your efforts, but you hold them to secrecy like you do other state secrets among allies out of mutual benefit. I'd expect there to at least be a well worked out plan for such an infrastructure along these lines by now, if not implementation. It's one of those things where the losing move is not to engage with it, for fear someone else is and making strides.

[sandworm101]

Except we know when they were launched, thier general orbital parameters, and what they are generally doing. We dont know the specifics but their existance as spy sats is well understood. There is even an online community of enthusiasts looking for and tracking them. Wikipedia is full of data.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(satellite)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacrosse_(satellite)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconnaissance_Office

https://www.nro.gov/launches/

[bobthespaceguy]

I think advancing science sometimes comes with risks. I would welcome a friendly arms race for better access, but who knows what would actually happen.