The Center for the Advancement of Science In Space, known as CASIS, introduced itself this fall to the community of existing National Lab partners as the new non-profit organization that will manage the National Lab on behalf of NASA. CASIS was founded specifically to fulfill the statutory requirement from Congress that a non-profit entity be engaged by NASA to stimulate, develop, and manage non-NASA U.S. use of the space station. On the NASA side, we are excited to start meeting our new CASIS colleagues as transition work begins.

The primary mission of CASIS is threefold:

• Maximize the value of the space station to the nation through both research and development and STEM education activities.

• Stimulate use of the station by other agencies, academia, and private firms.

• Develop tools and techniques to communicate the value of the work done on the station and increase the return on the taxpayer investment.

CASIS intends to accomplish this mission by building a strong, interconnected community, which ties together investigators at any level of progress down a particular research pathway, provides both private and public sources of funding, and engages experts in science and economics who can advise the community on technical matters and provide an independent valuation of a particular line of research.

These pathways will connect basic and applied research to the resulting mission and market applications. The goal is to shorten the overall cycle time by evaluating projects in terms of the bigger picture and with an understanding of their added value. As a non-profit, CASIS can also bring in visionary, speculative, and commercial funding sources, where appropriate, in the research process by recruiting backers who are seeking the value the project provides.

The International Space Station (NASA Image)

CASIS will sponsor both a Science Collegium and an Economic Collegium to examine the scientific feasibility and economic value of proposals brought forward to the non-profit, using a value-added approach to complement scientific review, as well as proven algorithms for economic valuation. These valuation models will be benchmarked against real world data from existing National Lab partners before they are formally implemented.

All of these various elements will come together in what CASIS calls, the “Marketplace,” where researchers can seek funding and partnerships, implementation partners can offer their expertise with flight hardware and integration services, investors can look for promising opportunities, and all the various participants can negotiate innovative partnerships and collaborations with the help of CASIS.

Through its initial seed funding from NASA, as well as partnerships with private investors and other government agencies, CASIS will sponsor annual grant solicitations designed to bolster research lines, education programs, and technology development projects assessed by the Science and Economic Collegiums as having particular merit and value. This will continue over the 10-year cooperative agreement between NASA and CASIS, which has a five-year extension option.

The CASIS concept of operations will further develop over the next year as the organization grows and the Collegiums form. The transition will include CASIS progressively taking on more of the payload development support and research prioritization roles, while the International Space Station National Lab Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center facilitates the handover with existing partners. 

Learn more and keep up-to-date with this promising new collaborative model between CASIS and NASA at: http://www.iss-casis.org/

Presentations from the CASIS Kickoff Meeting can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/nlab/index.html

The Center for the Advancement of Science In Space, known as CASIS, official logo.
(CASIS Image)

Justin Kugler, strategic relationships manager for the International Space Station National Lab Office, worked with CASIS leaders in developing this initial blog. Stand by for more details as CASIS establishes their organization for enabling new research on the space station.