Sixty years ago, a group of computer users at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a primitive computer game that they dubbed Spacewar!. Run on the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-1, a computer with a clock speed of 187 kHz, and only 9 Kb of memory, it featured two torpedo-armed spaceships under the control of rival players and able to dogfight while manoeuvring in the gravity well of a star located at the centre of the screen. Today, Spacewar! is a distant landmark in the history of computer games, but in the real world the techniques for space warfare have been explored by at least four nations. Satellites used for tasks such as communications, reconnaissance, and early-warning could be major targets in any future conflict. US DoD Joint Publication 3-14 2018 titled Space Operations warned that adversaries were "developing, testing, and fielding capabilities in an attempt to deny the United States the advantages gained from space. Our adversaries' progress in space technology not only threatens the space environment and our space capabilities but could also potentially deny us an advantage if we lose space superiority."
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