Research Demand: The Scientific Record
Is the research community that would use a commercial station growing, and who funds it?
Chapter summary
Scholarly works mentioning microgravity or the ISS, from OpenAlex, by year, country, funder and institution type. A text search: it measures research interest, including ground studies, not flight experiments.
Key takeaways
- 1
Works mentioning microgravity tripled from about 1,750 in 2010 to more than 5,000 in 2025.
- 2
China is close to the United States on output (3,918 works against 4,393 in 2021–2025), and China’s NSFC is the largest single funder.
- 3
Companies appear on about 4% of works: the market is academic and publicly funded.
Keep reading with Space access
This chapter (4 exhibits, 1,032 words) is part of Space & aerospace. Space access opens every chapter of all 11 Space reports, with the interactive models, Excel downloads, Ask and named Atlas records.
- Global Market Analysis: Deep Space Economy
- Space-Based Datacenters: Feasibility Study
- Commercial Space Stations: Feasibility Study
- Defence Space and Missile Defence: Golden Dome and the SDA Architecture
- Launch After Starship: Prices, Capacity and European Sovereign Launch, 2026–2035
- Satellites to Phones: Direct-to-Device Connectivity, Spectrum and Economics, 2026–2035
- Space Supply Chain Bottlenecks: Components, Minerals and Capacity, 2026–2030
- Lunar, Cislunar and Settlement Economics: What the Moon Costs and Who Pays, 2026–2060
- Earth Observation and AI Analytics: What a Square Kilometre Is Worth and Who Captures It, 2026–2035
- In-Space Manufacturing and Microgravity Biotech: Products, Platforms and Economics, 2026–2035
- Space-Based Solar Power: Physics, Costs and the Path to Firm Power from Orbit, 2026–2050
€199 a month or €1,490 a year per sector, after a 7-day free trial. Cancel any time. Need several sectors? All sectors: €999 a month.
Check the live record Space Contracts & Tender Radar · Space Claim Check (free)
Ask about this chapter
Answers drawn from every Setcoin report and the live Atlas. Each statement links to the passage behind it.
Ask is included with every subscription
Cited answers across every report and the Atlas, with follow-up questions and a hand-off to the opportunity finder.
Research for professional investors. Not investment advice, and not an offer of any security or fund interest.