PROTECTING THE SPACE ENVIRONMENT - ARE WE DOING ENOUGH

Space development requires the institution of many safeguards, not lea st the protection of the space environment for the use of future gener ations. The arguments concerning orbital debris are well known, but wh at about the surfaces of the planetary bodies? The author highlights t he need for improved awareness of our apparent disregard for the degra dation of this segment of the space environment and points to the inad equacies of existing space legislation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.