Assessing the scientific and economic impacts of the experiments conducted onboard the International Space Station.

Abstract

The International Space Station United States National Laboratory has spearheaded space experimentation since 2005. This study assesses the impact of these experiments by linking NASA's log records to scholarly publications and patent inventions. Several key findings are documented. First, the volume of space experiments has steadily increased, with notable contributions from commercial developers and investigators. Growth accelerated in 2012 following the formation of The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space. From the ISS, ~400 papers and 41 patents have been produced, predominantly post-2012 and by public sector investigators. These intellectual products were significantly more impactful, as measured by citations than their counterfactuals-similar papers and patents along multiple dimensions and produced by the same set of scientists based on research on Earth. The differences were disproportionately attributed to NASA-public collaborations, highlighting a fundamental distinction between public and private research in space.