WILL WORLD WAR THREE BE FOUGHT IN SPACE?

The Pentagon certainly thinks it's a possibility, declaring - in a sobering new report - space to be the 'decisive domain' for any future conflict between existing and emerging superpowers

- Peter Sheridan

STAR TREK called it "the final frontier". Now it's poised to become the ultimate battleground. A shocking new Pentagon report declares space to be the "decisive domain" for any coming war between the superpowers. And it warns of a dystopian future as robotic weapons systems battle it out in orbit, raining death and destruction on terrestrial enemies with no human intervention.

"We are evolving toward a remote control war which, by 2050, may be a reality," says the US Air Force in its chilling report.

The future of warfare will be "highly automated, highly autonomous," it predicts.

"Control of space in 2050 will be aggressively contested - it already is.

"Adversary space systems may include weapons prepositioned in space for terrestrial attack."

Meanwhile, against this ominous backdrop another battle for space supremacy is being waged between the world's two richest men.

And financially strapped space agency NASA fears it might be left on the launchpad.

At the presidential inauguration in Washington on Monday, in a privileged position just feet away from the President stood rival billionaires: Elon Musk, who owns SpaceX, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin rockets. Both also command vast global satellite arrays.

Yet when Trump declared his ambition to send US astronauts to Mars it was Musk, who has become one of the President's most trusted senior advisers, who jumped with delight and gave a grinning thumbs-up. The world's richest man, Musk has long professed his dream of sending a SpaceX crew to the red planet, and Trump seems poised to use taxpayers' billions to help him do just that. Bezos, who lacks the President's ear, just applauded politely.

Trump's declaration deepens the rift between NASA and the ascendant Musk, who could single-handedly fund the space agency's $25billion annual budget for 17 years before he runs short.