Futron 2010 Space Competitive Index, Monday, 10-4-10
Guests: Peggy Slye, Jay Gullish. Topics: Futron's 2010 Space Competitive Index: A Comparative Analysis of How Countries Invest In and Benefit from Space Industry. We welcomed back Jay Gullish and for the first time, Peggy Slye, the COO and Director of the Space & Telecommunications Division at Futron. Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and rate this program on the new Space Show blog, http://thespaceshowoutsidethebox.blogspot.com. In the first segment of this two segment program, Jay provided us with an introduction to the Futron Corporation and its space analysis work including the Space Competitive Index. Jay then provided us with a quick overview of the status of the space industry as measured over the past five years, proving to everyone that the space industry does incur global economic growth and that it is a wealth creating industry. During this introduction, he broke this analysis down into industry segments and U.S. national agencies. A big part of this analysis was the growth in the commercial side of the space industry. Additional topics included the aerospace workforce and how technology has changed the industry by reducing the need for some jobs but increasing the need for skilled jobs in related areas. Our guests talked about military services, distance learning, and telemedicine as examples. This is an important discussion you do not want to miss. This discussion brought us to the educational problems in the U.S., specifically with regards to STEM. This discussion was also very important and certainly shed light on some major challenges we in the U.S. are facing and will be facing for years to come. In returning to the Space Competitive Index, Jay said that they used 50-60 indicators for the report and they now have three years of trends in the space industry which enables better analysis. He then talked about the report's focus on the major nations, breaking them into three tiers. One of the important trends discussed was the loss by the U.S. of relative space competitiveness over the years to other nations. We talked about this in detail and I asked about the impact on policy decisions influence this declining trend. Our guests had much to say about this, including the lead we have in military space, the impact of ITAR, and then the issue of policy and leadership. This is a must listen to segment so no matter what, do not miss it. Later in this segment, listeners asked about obtaining reliable data for their report and how such data was obtained, especially from several of the countries included in the report. In our final segment, our guests were asked about space as a wealth creation investment and if that was a fact, why government policy does not invest what it takes to produce more wealth by increasing the value of our space industry. This is another discussion you do not want to miss. Here we talked about the opportunity cost for investing in space over other government activities. We then talked about space in China, Japan, Israel, and India. Our guests told us the full report was available for purchase from http://www.futron.com/ for $199.00. The Executive Summary is on their website and is a free download. Later in the final segment, a listener asked about detecting upticks in the Russian military space budget. Near the end of the program, our guests outlined four key trends for our attention. If you have questions or comments, please post them on the blog URL above and you can send them to our guests at jgullish@futron.com and pslye@futron.com.
I enjoyed the show. It doesn't look good for the US in a long trend. I have been hearing about the low number of engineering students here in American vs other countries. I have been amazed at the number of students from China here in Corpus Christi, Texas. I wasn't surprised at the increasing space budgets around the world. Other people know it is a priority. I hope America does too some day.
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