TABLE OF CONTENTS It has often been said that mankind's desire for exploration is one of the aspects that sets us apart from the other creatures with which we share the Earth. A natural extension of this is the desire to explore the space environment a philosophy expressed concisely in the well-worn phrase "space ... the final frontier." From this point of view, it is important for the long-term psychological well-being of the human race that we maintain the ability to explore space.
Moreover, as the development of industry, commerce, and tourism here on Earth has shown, our desire and ability to explore leads inexorably to a desire to develop and exploit. This strongly suggests, therefore, that exploration of the space environment will lead to its development and exploitation, and there is evidence that this is the case. Indeed, as the space environment becomes increasingly accessible, it will become a natural extension of our current business and domestic environment.1
As earlier chapters have shown, this ability to explore and develop brings with it an ability to pollute, degrade, and even destroy aspects of the space environment. This is, arguably, a natural extension of an ability we have developed and practiced here on Earth.
It is these abilities, and their long-term effects, that compel us to consider protection of the space environment in much the same way as the degradation of the terrestrial environmental has compelled others to call for its protection. The task is a difficult one in either realm terrestrial or...
