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This paper presents an overview of the U.S. federal civil space budget between FY23 and proposed spending in FY25, providing a foundational reference dataset for civil space budget analyses. Projects that support, enable, or leverage space…
The development and deployment of interstellar missions will without doubt require orders of magnitude more resources than needed for current or past megaprojects (Apollo, Iter, LHC,...). Question is how enough resources for such…
In the United States, scientific research in space weather is funded by several Government Agencies including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA). For commercial purposes, space weather…
Deep space exploration offers the most profound opportunity for the expansion of humanity and our understanding of the Universe, but remains extremely challenging. Progress will continue to be paced by uncrewed missions followed up by…
ESA and NASA are studying projects having a tremendous return on variable star research. Other national space agencies are also studying or developing projects of smaller costs but with impressive returns. The projects range from global…
In 2015, the United Nations put forward 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030, where data has been promoted as a focus to innovating sustainable development and as a means to measuring progress towards achieving the…
The Research Data Alliance (RDA, https://www.rd-alliance.org/) aims at enabling research data sharing without barriers. It was founded in March 2013 by the Australian Government, the European Commission, and the USA NSF and NIST. It is a…
The situation of data sharing in astronomy is positioned in the current general context of a political push towards, and rapid development of, scientific data sharing. Data is already one of the major infrastructures of astronomy, thanks to…
The 2023-2032 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey Origins, Worlds, and Life recommended that "NASA develop scientific exploration strategies, as it has for Mars, in areas of broad scientific importance, e.g., Venus... that…
The NASA LISA Study Team was tasked to study how NASA might support US scientists to participate and maximize the science return from the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. LISA is gravitational wave observatory led by ESA…
We examine over 68,000 refereed publications based on data from 25 missions in the ESA Science Programme and 11 additional missions in which ESA is involved as a junior partner. The publications cover the fields of astronomy, planetary…
Beyond space exploration, the next critical step towards living and working in space requires developing a space economy. One important challenge with this space-economy is ensuring the low-cost transport of raw materials from one…
This white paper presents an analysis of Astro2020 science priorities and NASA's future astrophysics mission architecture, advocating for a coordinated fleet of \$1--2B missions, smaller than typical Flagship observatories, but…
We characterize mission profiles for human expeditions to near-Earth asteroids, Venus, and Mars. Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are the closest destinations beyond cis-lunar space and present a compelling target with capabilities already under…
We face unprecedented resource stresses in the 21st Century such as global climate disruptions, freshwater scarcity, expanding energy demands, and the threat of global pandemics. Historically, societies have relieved resource stress by…
Laying the Vision and Voyages (V&V, National Research Council 2011) Decadal Survey 2013-2022 objectives against subsequent budget profiles reveals that separate missions to every desirable target in the Solar System are simply not…
The national space programs have an historic opportunity to help solve the global-scale economic and environmental problems of Earth while becoming more effective at science through the use of space resources. Space programs will be more…
Utilisation of the material and energy resources of the Solar System will be essential for the development of a sustainable space economy and associated infrastructure. Science will be a major beneficiary of a space economy, even if its…
The world is changing fast, and so is the space sector. Planning for large scientific experiments two decades ahead may no longer be the most sensible approach. I develop the argument that large science experiments are becoming comparable…
Beginning in 2012, NASA utilized a strategic process to identify broad societal questions, or grand challenges, that are well suited to the aerospace sector and align with national priorities. This effort generated NASA's first grand…