Assessing the Value of the Next Generation Space Projects: State-of-the-art and new perspectives

In the New Space Economy, the value exchanged for developing new infrastructure (e.g., a satellite constellation) cannot be fully captured by traditional models and methods. New stakeholders transferring technologies and knowledge from other industries are involved since the early stages of infrastructure development. The space infrastructure has to be valuable for new, often unknown, end-users in the long run. The value created exceeds the mere economic return and includes tangible and intangible dimensions, such as social and environmental benefits. Therefore, the project's sponsors need to assess a wide set of value dimensions to maximize the benefits for the stakeholders involved in the next-generation space projects. While projects have traditionally been viewed as means to deliver specific outputs against a predefined scope, they are now increasingly conceptualized as agents of change for value creation. Notably, shifting the attention from product to value creation implies taking multiple dimensional perspectives of value, beyond the traditional short-term iron triangle, i.e. cost, time and quality. Value is perceived differently among stakeholders and evolves throughout the entire project (and product) lifecycle. Recent Project Management literature offers interesting insights to interpret the value mechanisms of space projects and programmes. Academics and practitioners developed models and methods to assess and manage value, covering a broad range of managerial decisions, from value planning to value engineering, and value analysis. The Project Management literature encompasses a set of approaches to enhance project value throughout the project or programme lifecycle. Value management can equip stakeholders to maximize project value creation and capture across a space project's concept, definition, implementation, and operation phases. Nevertheless, its adoption in the emerging New Space Economy context is still under-investigated and under-exploited. Our research aims to investigate the state of the art of emerging models and methods to identify and assess the value of space projects in the New Space Economy. We performed a systematic literature review to identify the value mechanisms in space projects in the New Space Economy realm. Results are intended to set the background for new foundational research but may also support practitioners in implementing value-driven approaches for developing next-generation space projects.