Anything that gets involved with military technology will have military restrictions. A large number of NASA missions already have a military and/or intelligence component. Intelligence agencies have their own suite of restrictions.

At its best, science is an open, public enterprise.

People outside of NASA will never be certain that they are dealing with civilians and civilian restrictions. This undermines public trust in a civilian agency.

Foreign governments and people will be even more circumspect.

On the positive side -- the military and intelligence space programs have practically unlimited budgets and little or no public oversight. Congress has oversight. All we have to do is trust Congress that our money is well-spent.

Also on the positive side, The military is big on program and project accountability. There is a chain of command and a name attached to every decision. The military is intolerant of failure. That has 2 effects, one good and the other, bad. On the good side is that everybody tends to think things through. The bad side is that the military is hugely conservative -- unwilling to take risks. This is why the military does almost no research on its own. It contracts with universities and private enterprise -- natural risk-takers.

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