Nathan Eismont, a leading researcher at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has warned that a war in space would leave humanity without the internet and all the other benefits of modern civilization, according to comments he gave to the Russian news portal Life.ru.
Eismont said that in such a scenario, people would be thrown back to a time before these technologies existed, and that it was hard to say how modern civilization could adapt to the loss.
Satellites named as main target
Eismont said the greatest danger in a war in space would be to satellites and all the infrastructure connected to them. He added that he hoped international structures would prevent such a scenario from happening.
Modern life relies heavily on satellites for navigation, weather forecasting, communications and military reconnaissance. Disabling or destroying them in a conflict could disrupt everything from internet access to financial networks worldwide.
Several countries, including the United States, Russia, China and India, have previously tested anti-satellite missiles capable of destroying spacecraft in orbit, demonstrating the kind of capability that would come into play in any conflict extending into space.
A leading Russian space science institute
The Space Research Institute, known by its Russian acronym IKI, is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences and is the country's main center for space science, working on planetary missions, astrophysics and Earth observation from orbit.
Founded in 1965, the institute has taken part in numerous Soviet and Russian interplanetary missions, including probes sent to Venus and Mars.
Growing warnings about conflict in orbit
Eismont's comments follow similar warnings from other observers. In March, Bloomberg columnist Andreas Kluth said the next world war would begin in space. Kluth, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist who writes on geopolitics and technology, made the remark in a column published by the outlet.
In February, Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defense, said that weapons systems in space would be part of the "Golden Dome" missile defense system the United States is developing, which is intended to shield the country from ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missile threats.
Under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, signed by most spacefaring nations, weapons of mass destruction are banned from orbit, though the treaty does not prohibit other types of space-based weapons systems. The treaty, one of the foundational agreements of international space law, was adopted during the Cold War space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
