THE SPACE COMPETITIVENESS INDEX: A TOOL FOR MEASURING PERFORMANCE, MAPPING HUMAN CAPITAL, AND ALIGNING SPACE POLICY WITH ECONOMIC OUTCOMES

摘要

National policymakers and industry leaders are increasingly challenged to align space policy with tangiblerewards-whether new technological milestones, concrete financial results, measurable human capital benefits, oreconomic outcomes. Across international boundaries and boardrooms, there is more emphasis than ever onquantitative statistical analysis. Yet although the field of space economic metrics is emerging in response to theseneeds, it remains nascent. There is a lack of consensus on which metrics constitute the key indicators for measuringnational space performance-and equally important, large variances in international data collection standards andpractices.Against this backdrop-and in the second year of the IAC's new session on space economics-this paper seeksto identify continuing data and knowledge gaps in an effort to develop a broader international consensus on severalmetric questions:1. Which space economic metrics constitute leading indicators?2. How should these metrics be defined?3. What are some ways toward best practices in transparent and thorough space data collection and reporting?As a framework for this discussion, this paper will discuss the latest updates to The Space Competitiveness Index(SCI), a set of quantitative, qualitative, and proxy indicators that aim to characterize the space landscape along threelines-government, human capital, and industry-using 60+ metrics in reference to ten or more leading spacenations.By examining the metrics for three sample nations, the paper will demonstrate how the SCI can informgovernment and industry investment decisions, quantify international science and engineering human capital mapglobal space education graduates worldwide, and serve as a tool for ensuring alignment between space policy andspending decisions and outcomes.The paper will conclude with a survey, designed to be released at subsequent IAC events, inviting readers tocontribute their own thoughts on optimal space metric methodologies, in order to continue development and dialogueregarding the expanding field of space economic metrics.