Bosch_1999abstr

 

 

SPONSORING CONTRACTS FOR PRIVATELY FUNDED SPACE PROGRAMS

 

Michael Bosch

University of Regensburg

Faculty of Business Administration

Regensburg, Germany.

email:Michael.Bosch@wiwi.uni-regensburg.de

 

 

ABSTRACT

 

Sponsoring concepts for privately funded space programs do work, especially if broad public interest in the specific program can be awakened. The International Mars Society plays an important role in this field by raising public interest with an Arctic Research Station followed by hitchhiker payloads on government funded missions. Pioneering sponsors will be followed by more critical sponsors, if additional public interest can be created by the successful management of the first small projects. This paper begins with a description of a new engineering approach “Design to Sponsorship (DTS)” which can be characterized as a market oriented design. The author then introduces sponsoring contracts and contract management procedures developed in cooperation between University of Regensburg, Faculty of Business Administration, and the German Chapter of the Mars Society. Finally, the successful implementation and management of a sponsoring contract between the German Chapter of the Mars Society and a private sponsor is described.