Project Description
An IISC White Paper where the authors make a compelling case that global or even national finance markets can support large-scale science and space activities and that this wave has already begun. It is clear from NASA’s sky surveys that the Earth exists in a shooting gallery of asteroids. New companies are scrambling to reach the asteroid belt and the massive resource deposits there. It was government-funded activities and exploration that revealed these compelling threats and opportunities to humanity, but government space exploration funding is at an all-time low.
The white paper lists several examples such as the Private Finance Initiative experience in the UK (a public-private partnership resulting in the development of a satellite constellation for the UK Ministry of Defence), the privatisation of a nine-year-old, $150,000,000 NASA mission called the Galaxy Evolution Explorer Telescope, and several more.
The issue of market risk associated with space science missions is discussed in relation to financing them; whereby reducing the market risk could provide an opportunity for a substantial infusion of private capital.
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