Space Policy最新文献

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are increasingly being recognized as important policy goals for organizations across government and the industry. Improved DEI has been linked to both substantive improvement in innovation performance and societal good. However, despite a stated emphasis on DEI, progress has not kept up with aspirations. One indirect policy approach that holds promise is wider adoption of Open Innovation (OI) as part of an innovation toolkit. Proponents contend that OI reduces barriers to entry and garners productive contributions from diverse contributors. While there is anecdotal support for the diversifying potential of OI, so far, there is a dearth of empirical evidence connecting OI to DEI with consideration of performance outcomes, beyond `winners´. To study this link directly, this article leverages data from a previously conducted unique field experiment that explicitly tracked the population of potential solvers and their performance on a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space robotics problem. We found that while OI attracted different solvers than the reference internal workforce, there was important variation in both the extent and direction of the observed differences, with respect to attributes of DEI. For instance, OI attracted proportionally fewer female solvers than the already male-dominated space workforce; and that proportion decreased further among solvers providing quality solutions. On the other hand, OI proved effective at granting access to an international pool of young professionals with potentially novel perspectives. Overall, our findings suggest OI can be an effective tool for achieving some diversity policy goals, but it is not well-suited for achieving all stated aspects of diversity. Therefore, we suggest a more targeted approach to matching the opportunities for OI to achieve specific policy objectives.

This article focuses on Ireland's potential as a space actor and the role that the space sector can play in contributing to Ireland's future development. By embracing the metaphor of ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ and by reconciling an institutional perspective of entrepreneurship with the triple/quadruple helix model, the article describes the journey of the Irish space sector that has capitalised on the experience of the major space players already established in the space arena in order to successfully carve its own niche.

India is one of the few developing countries with a growing technological capability in the space industry. This capability manifests itself in designing, manufacturing and launching satellites of various sizes and sophistication. The state has played a significant role in evolving and nurturing this technological capability, as the space sector has received considerable public investment. The space economy has grown and can be essential to the country's high-tech manufacturing and services sectors. A necessary feature of this technological capability building is entirely built through indigenous research and development by the Indian Space Research Organisation. Employing an eclectic framework, the paper maps out the size and structure of India's space sector and analyses the state's role in shaping it. It also provides us with some estimates of the productivity of those public investments in creating a space economy.

New Space refers to the recent opening-up of the space sector to private companies. The liberalization of space activities, which coincides with the digital evolution of the economy, is associated with the rapid expansion of the downstream space segment, i.e., space-related commercial products and services. In this paper, we address the issue of evaluating the size of the downstream space sector in light of New Space characteristics. We describe New Space as a structural transformation of the space sector associated with the entry of private companies and investors, the adoption of new business models, and the reorientation of space agencies towards market-oriented policies. In this specific context, we claim that assessing the economic weight of downstream space activities is of prime interest. Our review of space sector evaluations shows limitations of the existing methodological tools when identifying and evaluating downstream activities. We conclude this work by outlining theoretical issues regarding New Space and the expansion of space-based services markets to be considered for a new evaluation methodology.

Since the rise of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the late 20th century, academia has engaged in critical discussions around the phenomenon and industrial organizations have developed numerous guidelines and best practices. An analytical tool that has enriched the depth of the discussions is typology. Typologies help to deconstruct complex phenomena, develop analytical frameworks, and conduct empirical investigations. With the New Space evolution and the success of National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, PPPs have become a frequent procurement arrangement in the space sector. Because of their theoretical benefits, PPPs are politically popular and are supported by major government space policies. However, the space policy literature uncritically praises and promotes such procurement arrangements without examining their merits. As the sector begins employing more PPPs, it is necessary to engage in critical discussions built on empirical evidence. This study presents a typology specific for space PPPs to provide a standardized language for investigations and bring coherence to the term “PPP” in the sector. The typology development involved mini-case studies of 20 space programs, and the framework embodies a well-established typology approach.

This paper explores the impacts of a potential royalty mechanism by considering the effects of different royalty and tax rates on the economics of a hypothetical commercial lunar ice mining project. The study also examines the conceivable benefits that could be generated from a royalty regime from a global perspective and considers the possible impacts of royalties on operational decision making in a commercial lunar ice mining context. There has been substantial debate since the signing of the Outer Space Treaty in 1967 regarding how to ensure the international community benefits from the commercial exploitation of space resources, should these activities eventuate. This includes the recent initiative by the Legal Subcommittee of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to establish a Working Group to explore potential models for a legal framework to govern space resource activities. No formal proposal to include a royalty mechanism has yet been made; however, it is apparent that part of the mandate of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Legal Subcommittee could be to explore the issue of benefit sharing, and it is possible that a royalty mechanism or something similar could ultimately be proposed. After considering the impact of royalties on a hypothetical lunar ice mining project, this paper finds that royalties, in particular ad valorem royalties, could have a meaningful impact on the economics and operational parameters of a commercial lunar ice mining project, in turn potentially impacting the ability to raise the funding required to develop such projects. The study also finds that under plausible scenarios, the benefits generated on a per capita basis would be negligible, even assuming significant industry growth rates over 50 years. The study, therefore, concludes that the rationale for imposing a royalty mechanism on space resource activities for the purposes of benefit sharing through direct monetary distribution to recipients would need to be carefully examined should such a royalty mechanism ever be proposed.

We are witnessing the emergence of a new “techno-economic paradigm” in the New Space economy. The entrepreneur research during the current “Innovation and Communication” paradigm captured the co-creation of the digital ecosystem through the affordances and platforms of the digital technology. Similarly, New Space is creating opportunities for a new generation of space entrepreneurs, known as astropreneurs, to co-create the ecosystem through the affordances and platforms enabled by space technology. For astropreneurs, the affordances vary depending on whether the application of the space technology is intended for use in space, on earth or “spin-off” to another market. Additionally, the co-creation across the groups of astropreneurs and the fluidity of the technology across markets differs depending on their associated affordances. By exploring how the different context of space and its associated technology affordances introduces new models of co-creation and fluidity across the astropreneurial community, this article aims to broaden the fluidity and co-creation research of entrepreneurs.

In this article, we develop a response to Wright, et al.'s article “Geopolitical Implications of a Successful SETI Program,” which is a critique of our own prior article in 2020 that develop a realpolitik analysis of risks related to contact with extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).