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The space industry on has produced enormous economic value thanks to launching thousands of satellites, which helped us create GPS, satellite TV, Starlink, weather sensors, etc. But what about the value of experiments/research conducted by astronauts? According to NASA:

More than 3,000 experiments have been conducted aboard the International Space Station during the 21 years humans have been living and working in space. These experiments have provided insights helping improve life back on Earth and explore farther into the solar system. Researchers have shared these results in thousands of scientific publications.

So far, have any experiments conducted by astronauts managed to produce direct economic value to humans on the ground today, similar to the direct value produced by satellites? There's obviously trillions of future value from astronauts helping us research better ways for humans to travel in space but I'm curious if there's also some tangible output from space work today that we can all be thankful for?

Examples of highly valuable experiments/research conducted on the ground would be:

  1. Discovery of CRISPR in 2012, unlocking direct gene editing.
  2. Discovery of graphene in 2004. Estimated economic value was $200m/year as of 2023.
  3. High-brightness blue LEDs in 1993, unlocking modern LED lights.

Obviously such research is quite rare even on the ground but perhaps there was something that managed to generate at least $1m/year in direct revenue by now?

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    $\begingroup$ NASA publishes a magazine called Spinoff, but I think you might be asking about the commercialization of research conducted inside the ISS, not including the technologies advanced by NASA on the ground. $\endgroup$
    – phil1008
    Commented Aug 5 at 15:30
  • $\begingroup$ @phil1008 yes, I'm curious about the impact of human-conducted research on the ISS itself and its contributions to global GDP so far. $\endgroup$
    – JonathanReez
    Commented Aug 6 at 4:04

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Probably the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Because it's available for free, it's by far the most popular source of Earth elevation data. A decade ago, NASA estimated there were three-quarters of a million direct users in every country on Earth; use has only grown since then.

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  • $\begingroup$ Did it require astronaut involvement though? From the wiki description it sounds like it was (or could have been?) fully automated, just like any other satellite launches. $\endgroup$
    – JonathanReez
    Commented Aug 6 at 4:03
  • $\begingroup$ @JonathanReez, it could have been done without astronaut involvement, but since it was flown on the Shuttle, it wasn't. $\endgroup$
    – Mark
    Commented Aug 6 at 6:55
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    $\begingroup$ @JonathanReez - some detail at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-99 but have seen mention that this was a very tiring mission due radar being complex to operate in terms of keeping stable during land passes and then fitting all vehicle support activity including load/unload of tape over ocean where any mistakes put a 'hole' in the final data. Note the 'working in shifts' part. $\endgroup$
    – GremlinWranger
    Commented Aug 6 at 12:35
  • $\begingroup$ It definitely required astronaut involvement. Including flying the "flycast maneuver" which spawned this awesome shirt. i.imgur.com/bIhAAlQ.png $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Aug 6 at 19:39

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