Space

 Competitive and Burgeoning Space Economy

• Space use continues to expand and become more of a commercial concern. The United States must evolve how it works in space to maintain and continue to grow the U.S. commercial space sector.
  

  Subtopics Lunar Surface Exploration and Development The Moon is the maior shared focus of current and future space exploration. Many actors – public and private, domestic and international – are increasingly endeavoring to land and operate on the Moon with both robotic and human flight systems in the face challenges at the frontiers of technical, financial, and programmatic capabilities. The Lunar Surface Exploration and Development Task Force will identify and document critical initial steps for lunar surface exploration that will promote sustainable lunar and space exploration, international cooperation and coordination, and economic development. Cislunar Infrastructure & Operations The future of cislunar missions will depend on an emerging infrastructure of private and public sector services and capabilities. A range of human and/or robotic/autonomous mission approaches, great power competition, and economic forces will drive the development of various cislunar infrastructure and operational capabilities. The Cislunar Infrastructure and Operations Task Force intends to drive toward answering the hard questions of how government and commercial capabilities will combine to enable development of cislunar operations infrastructure. Space Ecosystem Development The economic and governance foundations of space activity are shifting rapidly as decades of government dominance of the space sector gives way to an increasingly privately capitalized space industry. Nonetheless, non-government market demand for such high-profile space-related capabilities as human spaceflight, and lunar and deep space exploration, remains low. The Space Ecosystem Development Task Force will address today’s and tomorrow’s economic, governance, and business approaches that impact the viability, extent, and growth.

 Outpacing the Space Threat

Space is essential to our everyday lives. How do we protect this asset, maintain U.S. global leadership, and continue to defend U.S. national security interests?

 Space Exploration

How can we sustainably explore our solar system and beyond including the capabilities of the many new companies and countries that have spacefaring capability and ambitions?

 Space Sustainability

Space Sustainability How can we best use space/space assets to protect and manage our planet’s resources, people, and property and to address the climate crisis.

 Space Traffic Management / Space Traffic Coordination

With the ever-growing presence of objects in space, especially the large LEO constellations, there are needs for norms, rules, and principles to guide the use of outer space if we are to preserve it for current and future generations.

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