The project is examining the feasibility of competing visions for human space exploration, looking in particular at challenges in three key areas, central to realizing future prospects of humans in space: Governance, Financial Mechanisms, and Public Support.

Governance
Examing the ways space initiatives are led and organized. Workshops and conferences will be held on key governance questions, including the role of international cooperation, the role of the private sector, the impact of military space activities on civil space exploration, and legal and ethical challenges.




Finance
How can the financial market become increasingly involved in human space exploration activities? Is there a future business model for human space exploration? CSIS aim to study these questions with venture capital firms and financial market experts through workshops and various events.




Public Support
The project is also looking at the critical issue of public support for an expansive vision for human space exploration. The idea of space exploration has an imaginative appeal for most people, but when ranked against other government spending priorities, it often falls towards the bottom of the list. Is it possible to build a broad, international and sustainable constituency for human space exploration?
0links for public support


Over the course of the Human Space Exploration Initiative, CSIS will be building partnerships, working with groups and governments across the world to implement these and other recommendations. To catalyze these efforts, CSIS will host a Global Space Development Summit in coordination with the Chinese Society of Astronautics in Beijing, China in April 2008.