Summary: 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.
