Pentagon planners are spending billions of dollars trying to figure out how to engage our enemies on the ground with weapons based in space. Efforts are also under way to figure out how to wage war in space, not just to bombard others from the heavens.

The author surveys five futuristic military technologies currently under consideration in the U.S, including laser weapons, space-based kinetic-energy projectiles, and hypersonic missiles.

The author looks at several space weapons systems currently under consideration by the U.S. including kinetic-energy weapons, hypersonic planes, and space lasers.