ABSTRACT
This chapter explains three "frontiers" of space as an environmental policy concern. Most policy activity has been about the first frontier, using space in relation to the home planet. There has been some policy development concerned with the second. The third frontier has received minimal attention from policymakers. It analyzes each of the three faces of space-environment policy. The emphasis is on policymaking by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the United States, the world's dominant space power. The three frontiers of environmental policy as they relate to space: space-based observations of Earth for understanding and predicting large-scale environmental change; near-Earth space as a place increasingly used for commercial, scientific, military, and other practical purposes, and consequent issues of regulation for crowding and debris. They also include deep space—the moon, Mars, and beyond- as humanity reaches to explore, settle, exploit and protect itself from outer space.
