"We came in peace for all mankind."
-Neil Armstrong, July 21, 1969
In his 1966 Hugo-winner The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, sci-fi author Robert Heinlein created a compelling image: a moon-based catapult for transporting mineral resources down to earth being instead used as a weapon, flinging kinetic-energy laden rocks down the gravity well at a domineering home planet.
...the narrator and Professor La Paz, a revolutionary hero and leader, travel to Earth to negotiate independence for Luna, but are rebuffed. They return to the moon, and utilise its position at the top of the Earth's gravity well to drop masses of rock onto targets on all the main land-masses below them.
Fortunately, it's only fiction; such a thing couldn't happen today. Particularly since there is a UN treaty, ratified by 98 countries and signed by an additional 27, whose language ensures that space is reserved exclusively for peaceful purposes.
Right?
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