Government Stimulation of Private Investment in Space Activities

摘要

National governments can stimulate increased private sector investment within space activities by lowering the risk that private sector investors will not earn their expected return on investment. National governments can lower this risk by articulating their support of a particular space activity through investment in actual product development or commitments to support that product within the marketplace. In situations where there is no viable market or no viable product to support a viable market, the national governments may need to spend a lot of money to create these markets and these products. An example of this is NASA's potential support for commercial companies to build spacecraft to re-supply the International Space Station. National governments can support actions that increase the risk to return ratio of private sector investors, and these actions will always increase private sector investment in space activities. This ability is not a function of the quantity of money spent by governments to stimulate private sector investment in space activities; it is a function of the quality of the monetary support of these activities.