What do citizens expect from space?

Bold ventures by billionaires, governmental lunar missions fueled by a new space race, and initial public offerings by space companies have rapidly increased public attention to the space sector. As a result, more and more citizens are forming opinions about space-related topics. These opinions are highly valued by players in this sector, as space missions critically depend on citizens as qualified employees, investors, and supporters of public funding for space endeavors. To provide reliable data about public opinion on space, we surveyed 2,139 citizens in nine developed and emerging space nations with the most significant space budgets in 2023. We find that citizens in emerging space nations advocate for prestigious human missions, while citizens of established space nations prefer cheaper, robotic missions. Overall, the top priorities for most citizens are related to activities that have an immediate positive impact on Earth, such as monitoring key parts of the Earth’s climate or threats from asteroids. While most citizens are in support of or indifferent to compliance with space law, India poses an interesting outlier; overall, 17% of Indian citizens stated that their country should not comply with space law, compared to an average of 5% in other countries. Our findings are useful to space stakeholders not only for addressing citizens’ priorities and concerns, but potentially also for cultivating long-term support for key space-related topics. • 2,139 citizens of 9 space nations share their priorities and concerns about space. • Top priorities, climate monitoring and asteroid detection, have benefits on Earth. • Primary concerns include ongoing militarization and growing amount of space debris. • Most respondents want their own nations to respect international agreements on space. • Support for manned exploration or a Mars mission strongly depends on nationality.