Building a Sustainable Earth Observations Enterprise
ESF is an initiative focused on advancing sound investment in civil space EO to inform societal needs. Led by a group of EO practitioners, enthusiasts, analysts, scientists and policy experts from across industry, government and associations, ESF seeks to examine what it really takes to build sustainable EOE across an array of civil uses in an austere federal funding environment.
Convening experts for a workshop with a creative facilitation team, the focus is on the challenges and opportunities in the development of sustainable EO satellite systems.
Through all-hands interactive exercises, the ESF workshop will explore the political, economic, sociocultural, and technological inhibitors and enablers that will realize new cross-sector business model architecture (including different procurement models) and value chains to support both new and sustained EO in light of challenging congressional budgets.
ESF is positioned in the pre-competitive space. Specifically, ESF focuses on EO challenges for the entire US civil space Earth Observation Enterprise (EOE) independent of observation or mission. The pre-competitive space addresses shared challenges across sectors and between industry competitors; addressing challenges in this space is equivalent to "a tide that rises all ships".
ESF is seeking the views and perspectives of multiple, diverse participants for this important research. Given the policy and business sensitivity of some of these topics, we plan to convene key elements of the workshop in small groups with one company or stakeholder group (as relevant) in each to ensure the non-competitive nature of the individual discussions.
ESF will conduct the workshop virtually over approximately two months. The first session will be
three hours and include all participants in a virtual space to map the civil space EOE landscape. In the same way, the final session, approximately two months later, will be three hours and include all participants in a virtual space to converge on synthesis and key findings. In between, we will convene multiple 1.5-hour small
group sessions and each participant will be assigned to attend one of those sessions. The shorter small group sessions will ensure that the participants will be in a non-competitive space that allows
for open confidential discussion about the more sensitive issues with the ESF facilitators.
The elements of the ESF virtual workshop will be a fully facilitated and interactive workshop
experience by our expert facilitation team, Know Innovation. Know Innovation has extensive experience
convening for innovation across sectors. It will not be a set of expert panels that can be reviewed online later. Full participation in real time is required through the duration of the workshop sessions
to ensure the results are as valid and comprehensive as possible.
The Earth Observations Enterprise (EOE) represents public, private, academic and philanthropic sector endeavors to produce information, provide services, generate solutions, and expand social and economic benefits to every American, every day, generated from EO. (Adapted from 2024 National Plan for Civil Earth Observations)
ESF's purpose is to bring together diverse stakeholders in the pre-competitive space to address shared challenges for creating a sustainable EOE.
ESF includes both traditional and non-traditional NASA study participants including subject matter experts (SMEs) in procurement, aerospace finance, business development, and policy.
ESF received funding from a NASA research grant to support a topical workshop in Fall 2026, which will be conducted virtually over two months. This workshop will gather thinkers, practitioners and doers in the planning, funding and building of US civil space EO in the public, private and philanthropic sectors.
A final report will be published and presented to stakeholders across the EOE.
We are seeking to engage at least 100 diversely skilled experts from across the EOE who know what it takes to make a civil space mission a success – from contract experts to technologists to legal practitioners and business development leads.
ESF seeks to:
Fully Virtual October - November 2026, 7.5 hr participant time commitment:
Policy - Policy Consultants, Policy Analysts
Economics - Business Models, Funding Sources
Sociocultural - Workforce, Science, Applications
Technology - R&D, Providers, Operations
Participants will evaluate recommendations from existing reports, assess implementation strategies, and identify challenges in developing cost-effective EO missions.
* SME Definition: individuals with deep, specialized knowledge, skills, or experience. SMEs act as go-to authorities within their organization for providing authoritative insights, validating accuracy, and solving complex problems in areas like technology, law, or engineering.
Policy - Policy Consultants, Policy Analysts
Economics - Business Models, Funding Sources
Sociocultural - Workforce, Science, Applications
Technology - R&D, Providers, Operations
Participants will evaluate recommendations from existing reports, assess implementation strategies, and identify challenges in developing cost-effective EO missions.
* SME Definition: individuals with deep, specialized knowledge, skills, or experience. SMEs act as go-to authorities within their organization for providing authoritative insights, validating accuracy, and solving complex problems in areas like technology, law, or engineering.
Please nominate subject matter experts to be personally invited to the Earth's Space Future workshop application process. While the application is open to all, nominations ensure that these subject matter experts directly receive an invitation to apply and will be considered during the application down-selection process.
Please nominate someone to attend this conference by filling in the ESF Nomination Form.
There are several levels of engagement:
Stakeholder - someone who might not shape the final report as a participant, but someone who would greatly benefit from the final report because of role/ responsibility/ interest alignment. Opt-in to our mailing list for updates.
Participants - someone who participates in the virtual and in-person workshops
Sponsors - visionaries who shape the value of the workshop and attend a pre in-person workshop reception. Claim your leadership role, sponsor ESF!
This workshop is funded in part by the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Earth Science Division (ESD) in response to Topical Workshops, Symposiums, and Conferences (TWSC-24) in Space and Earth Sciences and Technology (Grant ID: NNH24ZDA002N).
