A Nice NASA Economic Impact Report By / For Wonks

Keith’s note: According to this new report New Report Shows NASA’s $75.6 Billion Boost to US Economy “NASA highlighted how its Moon to Mars activities, climate change research and technology development, and other projects generated more than $75.6 billion in economic output across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., in fiscal year 2023. … Combined, NASA’s missions supported 304,803 jobs nationwide, and generated an estimated $9.5 billion in federal, state, and local taxes throughout the United States. The study found NASA’s Moon to Mars activities generated more than $23.8 billion in total economic output and supported an estimated 96,479 jobs nationwide. For investments in climate research and technology, the agency’s activities generated more than $7.9 billion in total economic output and supported an estimated 32,900 jobs in the U.S.” Full report

• Great news. Everyone should know by now that NASA has a broad impact in terms of economic factors. It also has a great impact on education, inspiration and serves as a potent source of soft power globally. Alas, the NASA people who generated this report, the people who run education and public outreach, and the people who run international relations at NASA will not make the best use of this report – or each other’s metrics. The report has lots of numbers. How about some real world stories and metrics that are meaningful to actual human taxpayers, citizens, students etc. – things that they can wrap their minds around when it comes to their daily lives, dreams, futures, and finances? This is a fine report but it was written by econometrics wonks and is only relevant to other econometrics wonks – not real people. If you ask NASA Public Affairs about real world impacts of this report they will be clueless and simply direct you back to the report. I’d like to know:
• How does this economic news affect the communities where the money is spent? [Give examples of specific, identifiable communities and impact that NASA spending has had]
• How were these economic metrics generated and how do they map NASA’s impact when compared to other agencies? [Does DoD spend more/less?; how does this compare to local non-space industries?]
• How do these efforts find synergy in the Artemis Accord signatories? [NASA Space Apps and other OIIR activities have an impact, yes? So .. what is it and how does it map against various NASA agreements and collaborations and where might there be new opportunities?]
• What impact does this pervasive NASA spending and participation affect career choices for young people?[Is there a correlation between spending in a locality and the number of students choosing space science and engineering and allied fields?]
• How do the communities where this money is being spent get to interact directly with NASA missions (other than communities with large NASA centers)? [How many ISS student interactions, town halls, etc. are done and where? what areas have the largest number of people’s names on space missions, mailing list memberships?]
• How does the economic news in this report find its way into national, regional, and home town media stories [why not create a publicly available, updated list of press citations so we can all see our tax dollars at work while NASA does all of its amazing things?]