He who controls the “high ground” usually wins the battle. You could … technically … qualify everything we’ve done so far under “defense”. It would be a simple matter to substitute military personnel for the civilian ones or just to make them civilian contractors. If we leave space to other nations, we leave ourselves vulnerable.
Then all you have to do is establish a post office on the Moon and the Constitution allows the feds to build a postal “road” … Well you can’t lay an actual road so the road would have to be spaceroads to the Moon … BTW, the courts interpreted that clause to apply to railroads … Call it a spaceroad and you’re good!
Aside from that, the libertarian icon Thomas Jefferson didn’t seem to have a problem with sending Lewis and Clark out on an expedition. Information is vital to a defense … sending human explorers and robots when necessary out to gather that information is the best way to get it.
