NASA is Looking for a Few Good Economists

NASA has a call for research in the economics of space exploration:

This NRA seeks empirical economic research projects, historical analog research, concepts for

encouraging further economic activity in space, and unique stimulatory activities that promote

novel private/commercial uses of space, new private/commercial space opportunities, and

emerging private/commercial capabilities in suborbital, orbital or deep space environments that

enable discoveries, development and applications from these environments.

Specific topics of interest include:

Historical Economic Studies in the following areas:


Economic history of NASA programs;
Long term historical impact of the space program;
Economic and business histories of American private sector space enterprises (including companies, societies, and projects);
Economic histories of historical analog activities for space exploration (including detailed investigations into the financing of historical expeditions, settlements, and transportation infrastructure projects).


Current and Near-Term Trends, Analyses and Concepts for accelerating American space development, in the following areas:


Utilizing market mechanisms, private sector partnerships, and expanding markets to serve non-traditional commercial entities;
Promoting broader uses of space for public and/or economic benefit, including job creation and/or workforce development, and maintaining American leadership in the global space marketplace;
Encouraging engagement on space activities from citizen makers, crowd-funders, citizen explorers, and participation of innovators from non-traditional sectors that can have a transformative effect on future private/commercial space developments;
Identifying and evaluating economic applications of space systems design to earth-scale economic analysis, including integrated modeling of globalized economic systems and earth systems science;
Examining competitive stresses, potentials for public benefit, and issues affecting NASA or the nation in the commercial space arena;
Monitoring, investigating and reporting on opportunities enabled by the rapidly growing national and international entrepreneurial space communities;
Assessing the adequacy of economic assessment and evaluation tools and methods for space architectures;
Conducting case studies of space development projects that can be used to inform NASA on the opportunities and impediments to economic development in space.


Economics, Systems Analysis, and Projections, in orbital and deep space development; lunar development, asteroid development, and Mars development.