Next Space Race is in IT

Abstract

The next Space Race will be in the economic applications from space and science technology. As NASA science and technology has global application; IT is global, economics is global; surely there are great untapped potentials in finding the IT links of commonality among these three. The Economics of IT will continue to depend upon solution providers creating new methods that capitalize on linking information and information centers with the applications community for business and economic functions.. New and innovative IT vendors whose increased efforts to apply evolving technologies and principles that power the e-business revolution are now seeing the business of government being transformed in a similar fashion. NASA will be a prime example of IT transformation. Potential benefits of e-government are identical to the benefits of e-commerce, which start from value derived from capabilities and assets. The capability and asset wealth of NASA technology and data mass scattered through hundreds of archives will one day provide incredible economic benefit across international and corporate boundaries. Yet the ability to economically benefit from bridging the gap between capability to billable service has yet to find it's first major market. Ultimately the role of government, science, and technology linking to the business world will find greater dependence from this increasingly common ground of IT solutions and technologies. Therefore the future role of the IT industry may be as much administrative as technical, ultimately of critical importance furthering the role of science into application.