EOS Data Policy

Although the Earth Observing System (EOS) is mainly a scientific venture focusing on global climate change, data from several EOS instruments could have commercial applications in oil and mineral exploration, forest management, and geological mapping. It is unclear, however, whether the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) policy of providing data at cost to scientists and at a market-based cost to commercial users will make it hard for U.S. companies to obtain access to these data. While NASA has made a general commitment to provide EOS data commercially, it has neither formally defined its plans for doing so nor considered commercial needs in early planning for the system that will store EOS data. International principles governing the exchange of data between international users have not yet been formally approved, although draft principles suggest that it would be unlikely for Japanese and European participants to release data collected at U.S. expense sooner in those countries than in the United States. EOS program officials recognize that some data will likely have commercial value but believe that the program's highest priority is scientific and climate change research. NASA has no plans to address commercial interests until later in this decade. GAO believes that NASA should further emphasize commercial access by seeking industry input now to verify which data instruments have potential commercial value and how best to make data available from them.

GAO found that: (1) consistent with the Landsat Act, NASA plans a two-tiered access system, free for research, operational, and environmental monitoring users, and at a market-based cost for commercial users; (2) NASA draft policy allows both foreign and domestic research users access to data if they agree to publish research findings and not use the data for commercial purposes; (3) NASA plans to competitively select a bidder to serve as the vendor for commercial users; (4) most EOS data have only research or operational applications, although data collected by certain EOS instruments have such commercial potential as identification of gold ore deposits and oil concentrations, oil and mineral exploration, forest management, and geological mapping; (5) an EOS engineering review committee has recommended that NASA reconfigure EOS platforms onto smaller satellite clusters and set priorities for EOS data collection; (6) NASA has not involved industry users in developing the EOS Data Information System (EOSDIS) or defined key access provisions regarding data availability; (7) uncertainties about profitability raise questions about the viability of using a commercial vendor, and NASA does not have a backup plan if it cannot obtain a vendor; and (8) international principles for governing the equitable exchange of EOS data among international users have not yet been formally approved by any of the EOS partners.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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