Analyzing CASIS Policy Data with AI: Sentiment Trends and Topic Modeling

Analyzing CASIS Policy Data with AI: Sentiment Trends and Topic Modeling | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Analyzing CASIS Policy Data with AI: Sentiment Trends and Topic Modeling Xiao Wu, Yuexia Han, Fang Yang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5271894/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Over the past two decades, particularly in low Earth orbit, the sustained operation of the International Space Station (ISS) has significantly promoted the growth of the U.S. commercial space industry. Specifically, the U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS, managed by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), has played a crucial role in advancing space commercialization. The effective operation of CASIS is also greatly influenced by government policies, particularly from NASA. However, there is limited research from a policy perspective that examines the role of CASIS and the U.S. National Laboratory in developing commercial space activities. To better understand the evolution of CASIS, this study utilizes CASIS policy data and employs artificial intelligence methods, such as sentiment analysis and topic modeling, to reveal CASIS's development trends and the sentiment of both government and public toward its initiatives. The findings indicate that, despite significant negative events, such as organizational restructuring and negative scrutiny, the overall sentiment of policies related to CASIS remains positive. CASIS has been criticized for mismanagement while also being praised for its contributions to space science innovation. Furthermore, this study highlights key themes related to CASIS's development, such as scientific innovation and international collaboration, emphasizing its leadership role in research projects, especially in microgravity. These findings lay the foundation for understanding how policy guides CASIS's development and its broader impact on the aerospace sector. Additionally, this study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of how policy influences CASIS's efficiency, governance, and strategic direction, contributing to broader discussions on space commercialization policy-making and offering insights for future policy interventions to enhance CASIS's role and capabilities. Social science/Science technology and society Social science/Social policy Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Introduction The International Space Station (ISS) is a major international collaborative project in low Earth orbit, initiated in 1998. Its unique research environment has made it an essential platform for space medicine research and a focal point for near-Earth space exploration (Grigoriev et al., 2009). The ISS will continue to operate until 2030, during which time its services will gradually transition to commercial space stations. NASA, in turn, will become one of many customers of these commercial platforms (Joseph & Wood, 2019). Within this context, CASIS, an official non-profit organization authorized by NASA, manages the U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS. CASIS plays a crucial role in advancing space research and driving the future development of commercial space, particularly through fostering public-private partnerships. Since its establishment in 2011, CASIS has supported a wide range of scientific and technological projects, spanning fields from space medicine and biotechnology to materials science and fundamental physics. CASIS also promotes partnerships between private companies and research institutions, encouraging companies to conduct experiments aboard the ISS with the aim of generating commercially viable products and technologies. As a bridge between government, academia, and commercial interests, CASIS's role is largely determined by the policies that guide its operations. These policies, formulated by NASA and other government agencies, define CASIS's strategic priorities. Over the past decade, policy decisions have shaped the scope and focus of CASIS's research activities, the nature of its collaborations, and its long-term sustainability as a core participant in the ISS research ecosystem. This study conducts an in-depth analysis of CASIS-related policy data collected from the Overton platform (which is a searchable indexing platform), with a focus on sentiment trends and thematic analysis. By examining the sentiments expressed in these policies, we aim to assess how government entities and public opinion view CASIS. In addition, topic modeling allows us to explore key themes and focal areas within CASIS-related policies. This analysis provides insights into how policies influence CASIS's operations and its contributions to scientific innovation. Literature review The Role of the ISS. The ISS, as a space station in low Earth orbit, has become a core platform for scientific research and technological innovation due to its unique microgravity environment and long-term experimental capabilities. The ISS provides scientists with the opportunity to conduct experiments in a microgravity environment that cannot be replicated on Earth. Therefore, the ISS offers unparalleled opportunities and advantages for space life sciences and commercial scientific research (Grigoriev et al., 2009). For example, protein crystallization experiments have shown significant advantages in microgravity, which has helped advance new drug development. Studies have demonstrated that the microgravity environment can produce larger and more regular crystals, which are crucial for drug structure analysis ​(Harris, 2013). This unique microgravity environment also offers valuable opportunities to study the effects of long-term spaceflight on human health. The ISS provides a long-term stable platform, allowing researchers to observe effects such as bone density loss and muscle atrophy over extended periods. Eyal and Derendorf (2019) emphasized that prolonged research on the ISS allows for an in-depth observation of astronauts' health changes, helping to improve related health issues on Earth. They also explored physiological and drug metabolism changes in the microgravity environment, calling for the development of personalized treatment options. Bajwa et al. (2021) highlighted the importance of personalized medicine in mitigating physiological changes during spaceflight and proposed its incorporation into future space missions. In addition to being a hub for scientific research, the ISS serves as an important platform for international collaboration. Scientists from multiple countries and disciplines can use this valuable resource to promote technology verification and development. For instance, NASA, along with its international partners, has used the ISS to advance technology verification across various industries, which is critical for future deep-space missions (Scimemi, 2015). Through the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, the ISS National Laboratory was established, allowing private enterprises and non-NASA government agencies to use the ISS to promote technological development and commercial innovation (Hatton, 2017). The ISS provides unprecedented opportunities for private enterprises to enter low Earth orbit and leverage the ISS platform for research and technology testing in a microgravity environment (Gatens, 2016). The Role of CASIS. Since 2011, CASIS has been responsible for managing the U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS, playing a key role in advancing scientific research, commercial applications, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. CASIS's mission is to maximize the utilization of the ISS platform for research and technological development, which has supported both academic and commercial projects, particularly in areas such as space science and space medicine, including protein crystallization and cell biology (Harris, 2013). CASIS's management has led to significant progress in health technology innovation aboard the ISS, resulting in numerous advancements that benefit astronauts and life on Earth (Eyal & Derendorf, 2019). CASIS has also significantly contributed to the commercialization of low Earth orbit by encouraging private enterprises to participate in research. Scimemi (2015) pointed out that CASIS plays a central role in promoting ISS commercialization, particularly in attracting private enterprises to use the ISS for research. Through CASIS's promotion, programs such as the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) and Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) ensured consistent support for ISS cargo transport, facilitating sustainable research by private companies and enabling commercial research (Besha & MacDonald, 2016). CASIS not only supports cross-disciplinary and cross-industry collaboration in fields ranging from biotechnology to materials science but also fosters relationships between public and private partners. CASIS approves and advocates for space research projects, encouraging private enterprises to conduct experiments aboard the ISS. It not only advances fundamental scientific research but also provides a fertile ground for commercialization, laying the foundation for coupling scientific research with commercial potential (Morgan, 2018). The Influence of Policy on CASIS. Policies have been instrumental in shaping the management and development of CASIS. Since the enactment of the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, policies have driven CASIS's operations, particularly in the area of low Earth orbit commercialization. CASIS was granted the authority to manage 50% of ISS resources for the U.S. National Laboratory, promoting the implementation of both commercial and academic research on the ISS (Scimemi, 2015). CASIS's collaboration with NASA transformed the ISS from a NASA-centric research platform to one open to a wider range of institutions and enterprises. The policy environment also laid the foundation for CASIS's success. Through policies such as the American Space Policy Directives, the U.S. government created a supportive regulatory environment. CASIS helped facilitate research projects by private enterprises and other sectors on the ISS, enabling them to utilize the unique microgravity environment for innovative research (Besha & MacDonald, 2016). These policies not only support research on the ISS but also align CASIS with broader space policy, innovation, and economic development goals. Despite CASIS's achievements, challenges remain. Scimemi (2015) noted that CASIS continues to face issues related to the sustainability of market demand for ISS-based research. Addressing these challenges requires aligning policy, commercialization efforts, and scientific research more closely to ensure long-term sustainability. Future research should explore how policy adjustments can further promote market demand and ISS commercialization. Some scholars suggest that closer connections between policy, commercialization, and scientific research could help address the market challenges and long-term sustainability issues faced by CASIS. This would not only facilitate the continued use of the ISS as a research platform but also promote further economic development in low Earth orbit (Morgan, 2018). The ISS serves as an important platform for both scientific and commercial research in low Earth orbit, supporting research across multiple disciplines through its unique microgravity environment and long-term experimental capabilities. CASIS, as the managing entity of the U.S. National Laboratory, plays a critical role in promoting cross-disciplinary collaboration and the commercialization of scientific research. However, policy has played an indispensable role in driving CASIS's operations and development, especially in the commercialization of low Earth orbit. Although CASIS has achieved significant success with policy support, the challenges of market demand and sustainability still require further research and resolution. Methodology This section details the data collection and preprocessing steps, as well as the sentiment analysis and topic modeling methods used to analyze CASIS-related policy data. Data Collection and Preprocessing. The policy data for this study were collected from the Overton platform, focusing on policies related to CASIS. To ensure data integrity, we used the keywords "CASIS" and "Center for the Advancement of Science in Space" to gather relevant policies from 2011 to 2023, filtering by subject areas such as "science and technology" and "economy, business, and finance." This initial search resulted in 757 records, which were further filtered by removing duplicates and noise, resulting in a final dataset of 466 policies. Manual annotation was used to classify the sentiment of each policy, using labels of -1, 0, and 1 to represent negative, neutral, and positive sentiment, respectively (Snow et al., 2008). This manual labeling ensured high-quality data for model training, laying a solid foundation for accurate data analysis and insightful research findings. Sentiment Analysis. Sentiment analysis provides insights into the emotional tone of policy texts, allowing us to assess public and stakeholder attitudes toward CASIS. This analysis is crucial for understanding policy implementation effects and guiding future policy-making (Liu, 2012). Sentiment analysis was conducted on manually annotated policy data to analyze changes in sentiment over different years, thereby gaining insights into the dynamic evolution of the policy environment. For instance, we statistically analyzed the average sentiment scores from 2011 to 2023, providing a comprehensive analysis of sentiment for each year. BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) was used for sentiment analysis, as it is effective in capturing deep semantic meanings in text and performs well in natural language processing tasks (Devlin et al., 2019). Compared to traditional sentiment analysis methods, BERT can better understand context, thereby improving classification performance. Topic Analysis. Topic analysis aims to identify the underlying structure of policy texts, helping us understand the key areas of focus and development trends within policies. We used the BERTopic method to analyze the policy data related to CASIS. BERTopic is a topic modeling technique based on BERT. In this study, a fine-tuned BERT model was used within the BERTopic framework, combining the Transformer technique with contextual Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (c-TF-IDF) to create dense topic clusters, providing a more intuitive and easy-to-understand representation of underlying information, and extracting high-quality topics automatically (Grootendorst, 2022). First, the fine-tuned BERT framework was used to enhance the embedding process, converting textual sentences and paragraphs into dense vector representations. Subsequently, the Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) algorithm was applied to reduce the dimensional representation of these document embeddings to two or three dimensions. Then, the HDBSCAN algorithm was used to identify clusters of different densities and designate some data points as noise or outliers. Finally, the c-TF-IDF method was employed to generate keywords for each topic cluster, forming dense, easy-to-understand topic representations. This methodology facilitated the identification of primary themes across the policy data, allowing for the analysis of key trends and developments within CASIS-related policies. Time Series Analysis of Topics. Time series analysis was conducted to track the evolution of topics over time. By analyzing the intensity of each theme at various time points, we were able to determine how CASIS's priorities shifted in response to changes in the broader policy landscape. A topic intensity coefficient \(\:\:{S}_{ij}\) was calculated for each theme at different time points, \(\:{T}_{i}=\left\{{t}_{i1},{t}_{i2},{t}_{i3},\dots\:,{t}_{in}\right\}\) ,capturing its prominence over time. The formula used was: $$\:{S}_{ij}=\alpha\:\bullet\:{X}_{ij}+\left(1-\alpha\:\right){\bullet\:S}_{i\left(j-1\right)}$$ where \(\:\alpha\:\) is a balancing parameter between 0 and 1, and \(\:{\:X}_{ij}\) ​ represents the intensity of theme \(\:i\:\) at time \(\:{t}_{j}\) . This analysis provided a temporal perspective on policy focus, helping to identify long-term trends and fluctuations in government and public sentiment. Results This section presents a rigorous and comprehensive analysis of CASIS policy data collected from 2011 to 2024. The results are divided into two main parts: sentiment analysis and topic modeling. Sentiment analysis describes the temporal evolution of attitudes toward CASIS, providing insights into the fluctuations in public and government support, while topic modeling elucidates key thematic elements, offering a deeper understanding of supporting and critical viewpoints. The goal of this analysis is to offer a broader explanation of CASIS's contributions and the challenges it faces. By combining sentiment and thematic perspectives, this section provides a holistic view of the evolving policy environment surrounding CASIS and its impact on the organization's role in space exploration. Sentiment Analysis of Policy Data. Figure 1 shows the time series of CASIS policy data, with the x-axis representing time and the y-axis representing total data volume, positive sentiment volume, and negative sentiment volume. As shown in Fig. 1 , policy data entries peaked in 2012 after CASIS was appointed to manage the U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS in 2011. This surge can be attributed to the newly established management authority, heightened expectations from government entities, and controversies surrounding the resignation of CASIS's executive director due to the organization's nonprofit status. The sudden increase in data volume not only reflects increased government interest but also the public's high expectations of CASIS's management capabilities. Subsequently, data volume decreased annually until 2018, when a report from NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) indicated that CASIS met expectations in only two out of nine assessed areas, prompting renewed attention and an increase in data volume, leading to significant discussions about CASIS's effectiveness. Following this, the data volume gradually stabilized. Positive and negative sentiment data followed similar fluctuations to the total data volume, with positive sentiment consistently outweighing negative sentiment throughout most of the study period. This trend indicates that the government maintained support for CASIS despite controversies and operational challenges. Significant negative events further highlighted areas where CASIS required necessary reforms. The resilience of positive sentiment reflects a certain level of government confidence in CASIS's role in advancing space research. Each data entry was labeled as positive (+ 1), neutral (0), or negative (-1). Based on these labels, the annual average sentiment scores of CASIS policy data were calculated, as shown in Fig. 2 . Despite some fluctuations, the average sentiment remained positive, indicating that the government's overall stance toward CASIS was favorable. The fluctuation of sentiment scores corresponds to key events that influenced public and government perceptions of CASIS's performance. For example, a decline in sentiment scores coincided with significant negative events, such as the resignation of the executive director in 2012, which sparked substantial controversy about the organization's governance and alignment with its mission. The 2018 OIG report highlighted underperformance in several operational areas, which further led to a decrease in the average sentiment score. This report brought inefficiencies within CASIS into focus, prompting critical evaluations by the government. The 2020 report by NASA's Independent Review Team (IRT) highlighted structural and management deficiencies within CASIS, which was another critical moment leading to a decrease in sentiment scores. Similarly, the 2022 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report criticized CASIS for underutilizing its User Advisory Group, underscoring the persistent challenges CASIS faced. These negative events were reflected in the sustained decline in sentiment scores over the subsequent years, indicating that governance issues had a lasting impact on public and government confidence in CASIS. Nevertheless, positive sentiment remained dominant, suggesting that despite operational setbacks, the government continued to recognize CASIS's potential and contributions to space research. Topic Analysis. This study employed topic modeling methods to analyze the underlying thematic structure of CASIS policy data. Unlike traditional methods that rely on a bag-of-words approach, such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), this study used BERTopic, which excels in generating contextual and sentence embeddings, thus providing a more nuanced understanding of the underlying structure. Figures 3 and 4 display the results of applying BERTopic to positive and negative sentiment data, respectively. By using BERTopic, more contextually relevant themes were extracted, enriching the analysis of policy discourse. Positive Sentiment Topic Analysis. As shown in Table 1 , Topic 0 reflects a broad focus on scientific research and progress in policies. Scientific research has consistently been a key element of national development strategies. This theme reflects collective recognition in policies and among the public of the importance of science in driving technological innovation. Additionally, there is ongoing attention from the government on CASIS management and utilization, which demonstrates broad support for scientific research in space. Topic 1 centers on agreements and collaborations between NASA and other nations and entities. Frequently occurring keywords such as "agreement," "cooperation," and "authorization" suggest a collaborative atmosphere where agreements are seen as mutually beneficial and foundational for advancing space exploration. The theme also emphasizes the positive perception of NASA's leadership in promoting global and interagency cooperation, which is seen as crucial for achieving significant advances in space science and long-term space exploration goals. Topic 2 focuses on space science projects, particularly those led by the government and NASA. Keywords such as "laboratory," "research," and "science" indicate the significance of ongoing space science research. This theme highlights strong policy support for experimental and applied research, especially in areas such as space science research and technological innovation. Support for laboratory-driven scientific progress reflects confidence in its potential to drive new discoveries and contribute to the success of space exploration. Topic 3 captures researchers' interest in microgravity research, particularly in specific areas such as protein crystallization. Keywords such as "microgravity," "crystallization," and "protein" indicate that this research area holds significant potential for breakthroughs in biomedicine and other scientific domains. The public and researchers appear optimistic about the transformative impact of these studies, particularly their potential to advance space science applications. Topic 4 revolves around financial support for space research, focusing on funding, grants, and related financial provisions. The terms "funding," "grants," and "research" underscore the importance of financial investment in ensuring the feasibility of space-related experiments and projects. The government strongly supports these financial investments, viewing these grants as critical for achieving groundbreaking research and innovation in space exploration. Such investments are seen as key drivers of ambitious space research initiatives. Table 1 Keywords of positive attitude. Topic Keywords 0 National, science, research, NASA, government, crew, agency, auspex, managed, reached 1 NASA, agreement, cooperative, national, authorization, manage, management, laboratory, act, user 2 Laboratory, science, research, national, advancement, center, development, commercial, portion, international 3 Microgravity, research, crystallization, protein, science, release, experiment, said, immune, proposal 4 Million, NASA, funding, grant, research, experiment, proposal, fund, cost, manage Negative Sentiment Topic Analysis. As shown in Table 2 , Topic 0 highlights critical viewpoints from relevant institutions regarding NASA's reports and assessments. Keywords such as "report," "national," and "found" indicate that several audit agencies have pointed out management and operational issues in CASIS through their reports. The negative sentiment reflected in this theme suggests that the government or public may have concerns about CASIS's practices or the progress of space programs during this period. Although CASIS plays a central role in managing the ISS and assisting in space science development, the theme reveals the government's critical perspective on certain aspects of its work. Topic 1 focuses on a set of specific criticisms related to leadership and organizational management. This topic is closely linked to the resignation of CASIS's executive director in 2012, who stepped down due to concerns that CASIS's collaboration with ProOrbis might jeopardize CASIS's nonprofit status. This event also sparked significant public debate, reflecting concerns about governance or strategic outcomes. Table 2 Keywords of negative attitude. Topic Keywords 0 Nasa, report, national, research, crew, found, organization, time, laboratory, lab 1 Becker, director, executive, nonprofit, Jeanne, ProOrbis, group, said, march, status Time Series Analysis of Topic Intensity. The primary goal of time series analysis is to reveal patterns and trends in data sequences, which can then be used for prediction, interpretation, and decision-making. In this study, each year was considered a time window for calculating the intensity of positive and negative topics. In Fig. 5 , the time series of positive topics shows the evolution of relevant themes from 2011 to 2023. The curves for Topics 0 and 2 have similar trends; both topics experienced rapid growth in 2012, reaching their respective peaks, indicating that the government was highly focused on these themes (e.g., space science research and experimental research) at the time. However, the intensity of these topics significantly declined in subsequent years until hitting a low point in 2016. Between 2017 and 2018, both topics surged again, suggesting that new research hotspots or projects might have emerged, reigniting public and institutional interest. Thereafter, they declined again, indicating that the intensity of discussions on these topics stabilized around 2020. The trend of Topic 1 differed slightly from other topics. It remained relatively stable from 2011 to 2016 but showed significant growth starting in 2017. This suggests that collaboration between CASIS and other organizations or institutions began to grow significantly and garnered widespread attention. The gradual upward trend, in particular, indicates that the government has continued to support CASIS's collaborative activities. Figure 5 also describes changes in the intensity of negative topics, which were primarily influenced by major negative events. Topic 0 peaked in 2018, then fluctuated downward. This was likely due to the 2018 report from NASA's OIG, which revealed that CASIS had met expectations in only two out of nine areas—a significant negative event that attracted widespread attention. The peaks in 2020 and 2022 could also be attributed to negative reports released by the IRT team and GAO, which brought additional scrutiny. Topic 1 involved the resignation of CASIS's executive director in 2012, who resigned over concerns that collaboration with ProOrbis might jeopardize CASIS's nonprofit status, leading to controversy. The time series topic intensity curves provide valuable insights into how government and public interest in space-related topics fluctuated, showing moments of peak engagement and periods of decline. These findings suggest that while CASIS's initiatives garnered considerable support, certain management and operational shortcomings led to skepticism and critical evaluations from the government and public. The juxtaposition of positive and negative sentiment themes reveals a complex situation in which CASIS is both praised for its innovative contributions and scrutinized for its governance and management issues. The purpose of this topic analysis is to provide a nuanced understanding of CASIS's multifaceted performance, recognizing both areas of significant achievement and those requiring targeted interventions for improvement. Discussion The results from sentiment analysis and topic modeling of CASIS-related policy data reveal several major trends that reflect CASIS's strengths and challenges. Overall, government and public sentiment toward CASIS has remained positive, with peaks in sentiment corresponding to important milestones in the organization's development. For instance, the initial surge in policy attention from 2011 to 2012 reflects the enthusiasm surrounding CASIS's appointment as the managing entity for the U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS. This enthusiasm was largely driven by CASIS's mission to maximize the ISS as a platform for research and technological development. Positive sentiment themes often related to CASIS's role in advancing scientific research, promoting international collaboration, and fostering public-private partnerships. However, the analysis also reveals periods of declining sentiment, often linked to controversial events that raised concerns about CASIS's management capabilities and operational efficiency. The notable decline in sentiment following the resignation of CASIS's executive director in 2012 and the 2018 report by NASA's OIG highlighted management challenges. Additionally, the 2020 IRT and 2022 GAO reports emphasized ongoing issues facing CASIS. These events drew attention to CASIS's management challenges, particularly its difficulties in meeting expectations in key performance areas. The topic modeling results provided further insights into the key areas of focus in CASIS-related policies. Positive themes highlighted the importance of scientific research and international cooperation, with many policies underscoring CASIS's value in advancing space research. Specific research areas, such as microgravity research and protein crystallization, were also frequently mentioned, underscoring recognition of CASIS's contributions to scientific progress. These findings indicate that CASIS has played a leading role in guiding research efforts on the ISS, particularly in areas like space science and biomedicine that have the potential for significant impact. One significant aspect of the discussion is the divergence between the generally positive sentiment in policy analysis and the prevailing negative perception of CASIS's operations in the public domain. The results indicate that while CASIS faced considerable scrutiny and criticism, particularly regarding organizational restructuring and transparency, overall policy sentiment remained supportive. This divergence may be attributed to the government's continued confidence in CASIS's role in driving scientific progress and its ability to foster collaboration among stakeholders in the aerospace community. This finding challenges the prevailing narrative of CASIS's inefficacy, highlighting the complexity of its performance, which involves balancing diverse interests and navigating a dynamic policy environment. Another key finding from the topic analysis is the emphasis on CASIS's role in promoting commercial space development. The analysis identified themes related to financial support, funding opportunities, and collaborations with private companies as significant topics in CASIS-related policies. These themes reflect the broader trend of commercializing low Earth orbit activities, with CASIS serving as a facilitator for private sector engagement in space research. This aligns with NASA's long-term strategy of transitioning the ISS from a government-funded research platform to a commercially supported one, with CASIS playing a central role in this transition. The limitations of this research must also be acknowledged. The policy data analyzed in this study are limited to those available on the Overton platform, meaning that certain policies and directives, particularly those not publicly available, may not have been captured, thus not providing a comprehensive reflection of the policies and directives influencing CASIS's activities. Additionally, the manual annotation process, while aimed at improving accuracy, may introduce subjective biases. Sentiment analysis relies on text classification models that may introduce biases or inaccuracies when interpreting policy language. Despite these limitations, this study provides valuable contributions to understanding the role of policy in shaping CASIS's activities and performance. Conclusion Since its inception in 2011, CASIS has played a pivotal role in advancing U.S. aerospace endeavors through its management of the U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS and its facilitation of a wide range of scientific and commercial research projects. The analysis of CASIS-related policy data shows that public perception of the organization is generally positive, with key policy themes focusing on scientific progress, international cooperation, and public support for government-led space initiatives. Notably, this study finds that CASIS's efforts in areas such as protein crystallization and microgravity research are recognized for their significant contributions to scientific advancement. However, CASIS has also faced challenges, particularly in the areas of management and leadership. Negative sentiment in policy discussions often reflects concerns about the transparency and effectiveness of nonprofit space organizations, highlighting areas where CASIS needs improvement. The findings suggest that despite these challenges, CASIS has successfully positioned itself as a key player in low Earth orbit research and commercialization. Looking ahead, as the ISS transitions to greater commercial involvement, CASIS will need to navigate an increasingly complex policy environment. Future research should continue to monitor the evolving relationships between CASIS, NASA, and private sector partners, as well as the impact of policy changes on CASIS's ability to support scientific innovation. Additionally, further research should explore how CASIS can address its operational limitations and improve its transparency and governance to better align with stakeholder expectations. This study emphasizes the importance of policy in shaping CASIS's activities and its contributions to the broader space research community. Recognizing the challenges and opportunities brought about by the commercialization of low Earth orbit, CASIS must continue to adapt and innovate to maintain its relevance and effectiveness in the dynamic field of space research. The novelty of this study lies in its application of artificial intelligence techniques, particularly sentiment analysis and topic modeling, to evaluate space policies from an angle not widely covered before—how policies influence the development and effectiveness of CASIS. The analysis spans over a decade, providing insights into the impact of key events on sentiment trends and policy focus. While the limitations of data source and potential biases must be considered, the findings of this study contribute to the understanding of decision-making in the context of space commercialization. The methods employed in this study can also be applied to evaluate the impact of policies on other scientific and technological organizations, such as NASA, ESA, or private aerospace companies. By utilizing sentiment analysis and topic modeling, stakeholders can better understand how public policy and sentiment influence strategic decision-making and organizational effectiveness, thereby offering broader applications for these technologies in evaluating the intersection of policy and innovation. Declarations Data availability All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files. Competing interests The author(s) declare no competing interests. Ethical approval This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors. Informed consent This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors. Author contributions Author contributions were written in cover letters. References Bajwa, J., Munir, U., Nori, A., & Williams, B. (2021). Artificial intelligence in healthcare: Transforming the practice of medicine. Future Healthcare Journal , 8 (2), e188–e194. https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.2021-0095 Besha, P., & MacDonald, A. (2016). Economic development of low earth orbit. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NP-2016-03-2140-HQ. Devlin, J., Chang, M.-W., Lee, K., & Toutanova, K. (2019). BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understanding (arXiv:1810.04805). arXiv. http://arxiv.org/abs/1810.04805 Eyal, S., & Derendorf, H. (2019). Medications in Space: In Search of a Pharmacologist’s Guide to the Galaxy. Pharmaceutical Research , 36 (10), 148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11095-019-2679-3 Gatens, R. (2016). Commercializing low-Earth orbit and the role of the International Space Station. 2016 IEEE Aerospace Conference , 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1109/AERO.2016.7500763 Grigoriev, A. I., Williams, R. S., Comtois, J.-M., Damann, V., Tachibana, S., Nicogossian, A. E., Bogomolov, V. V., Pool, S. L., Sargsyan, A. E., Knowingkov, O. L., & Doarn, C. R. (2009). Space medicine policy development for the International Space Station. Acta Astronautica , 65 (5–6), 603–612. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2009.03.005 Grootendorst, M. (2022). BERTopic: Neural topic modeling with a class-based TF-IDF procedure (arXiv:2203.05794). arXiv. http://arxiv.org/abs/2203.05794 Harris, B. (2013, September 10). ISS Utilization and Advancing Research in Space. AIAA SPACE 2013 Conference and Exposition . AIAA SPACE 2013 Conference and Exposition, San Diego, CA. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2013-5392 Hatton, S. (Ed.). (2017). Proceedings of the 12th Reinventing Space Conference . Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34024-1 Joseph, C., & Wood, D. (2019). Understanding Socio-Technical Issues Affecting the Current Microgravity Research Marketplace. 2019 IEEE Aerospace Conference , 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1109/AERO.2019.8742202 Liu, B. (2012). Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining . Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-02145-9 Morgan, D. (2018). The International Space Station (ISS) and the Administration's Proposal to End Direct NASA Funding by 2025. Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports and Issue Brief. Overton. (2024) Open Policy Ltd. https://app.overton.io/dashboard.php. Accessed: 20 November 2023. Scimemi, S. J. (2015, August 31). The International Space Station and the Commercialization of Low Earth Orbit. AIAA SPACE 2015 Conference and Exposition . AIAA SPACE 2015 Conference and Exposition, Pasadena, California. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2015-4581 Snow, R., O’connor, B., Jurafsky, D., & Ng, A. Y. (2008, October). Cheap and fast–but is it good? evaluating non-expert annotations for natural language tasks. In Proceedings of the 2008 conference on empirical methods in natural language processing (pp. 254-263). Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Supplementarydata.xlsx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5271894","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":377979519,"identity":"fd896c2d-8f8a-4f80-83e2-e9391daa4416","order_by":0,"name":"Xiao Wu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Southeast University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xiao","middleName":"","lastName":"Wu","suffix":""},{"id":377979520,"identity":"71e6b72c-5d5a-47b2-8d8d-93c4dec8822a","order_by":1,"name":"Yuexia Han","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAs0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYLCCBAYb0rWkkW7PYRLUGtxIPibxoOa8vPyMBMYPPxjs8ojQkpZskHDstuGGGwnMkj0MycVEaMkxfJDAdjvBQCKBQZqB4UBiA2Et+R8OJPw7lwB0GPNvIrXkMD5IbDuQwHAjgY04WyTPPDM2SOxLNtxw5mGbZY9BMmEtfMeTn0n++GYnL9+efPjGjwo7wloUDsCZjEDFBoTUA4E8QUNHwSgYBaNgFAAAGu09+dZN6XEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Chinese Academy of Sciences","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yuexia","middleName":"","lastName":"Han","suffix":""},{"id":377979521,"identity":"bd9d8ee3-7791-4a36-b855-9a407bec5600","order_by":2,"name":"Fang Yang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Southeast University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Fang","middleName":"","lastName":"Yang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-10-16 02:08:12","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5271894/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5271894/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":69096054,"identity":"4c3b8f9b-74bd-47ba-9a6d-0c3f89caff8f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-11-15 14:39:08","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":161186,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eVolume of CASIS policy data\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5271894/v1/e9ebdc9c7b039c67f8e245b1.png"},{"id":69096052,"identity":"a3c528f5-8d39-4c29-8e6a-d36ddd27fe59","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-11-15 14:39:07","extension":"png","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":31247,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eAverage sentiment scores of every year.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5271894/v1/08742dbbe2e97e0252fa4cf7.png"},{"id":69096051,"identity":"0b5264ad-7c19-4dc4-8a65-fbc9102764db","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-11-15 14:39:07","extension":"png","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":240765,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eDisplay of positive topic.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5271894/v1/1a0d14ed17fffc3cf4ee90e4.png"},{"id":69096047,"identity":"2b452d94-1785-43ab-bd7b-f0627651f615","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-11-15 14:39:06","extension":"png","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":119770,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eDisplay of negative topic.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5271894/v1/efe426869a195aebb49d7eaa.png"},{"id":69096048,"identity":"0dbf800c-b332-4a80-a54f-2288bd36a006","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-11-15 14:39:06","extension":"png","order_by":5,"title":"Figure 5","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":138004,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eTopic frequency change trend.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"5.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5271894/v1/f2477f7df11fce2c2008f3e4.png"},{"id":69096487,"identity":"430e182a-f903-4bc5-8d50-6007f8e3d715","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-11-15 14:47:06","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":975105,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5271894/v1/37baf5cf-540d-44a8-97d9-2c9828e0cc66.pdf"},{"id":69096049,"identity":"756f5d18-97b5-4c36-ae57-747f41f4c38e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-11-15 14:39:07","extension":"xlsx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":138395,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Supplementarydata.xlsx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5271894/v1/bf09dede21a85b8483a912e7.xlsx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Analyzing CASIS Policy Data with AI: Sentiment Trends and Topic Modeling","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe International Space Station (ISS) is a major international collaborative project in low Earth orbit, initiated in 1998. Its unique research environment has made it an essential platform for space medicine research and a focal point for near-Earth space exploration (Grigoriev et al., 2009). The ISS will continue to operate until 2030, during which time its services will gradually transition to commercial space stations. NASA, in turn, will become one of many customers of these commercial platforms (Joseph \u0026amp; Wood, 2019).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWithin this context, CASIS, an official non-profit organization authorized by NASA, manages the U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS. CASIS plays a crucial role in advancing space research and driving the future development of commercial space, particularly through fostering public-private partnerships. Since its establishment in 2011, CASIS has supported a wide range of scientific and technological projects, spanning fields from space medicine and biotechnology to materials science and fundamental physics. CASIS also promotes partnerships between private companies and research institutions, encouraging companies to conduct experiments aboard the ISS with the aim of generating commercially viable products and technologies.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs a bridge between government, academia, and commercial interests, CASIS's role is largely determined by the policies that guide its operations. These policies, formulated by NASA and other government agencies, define CASIS's strategic priorities. Over the past decade, policy decisions have shaped the scope and focus of CASIS's research activities, the nature of its collaborations, and its long-term sustainability as a core participant in the ISS research ecosystem.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study conducts an in-depth analysis of CASIS-related policy data collected from the Overton platform (which is a searchable indexing platform), with a focus on sentiment trends and thematic analysis. By examining the sentiments expressed in these policies, we aim to assess how government entities and public opinion view CASIS. In addition, topic modeling allows us to explore key themes and focal areas within CASIS-related policies. This analysis provides insights into how policies influence CASIS's operations and its contributions to scientific innovation.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Literature review","content":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Role of the ISS.\u003c/b\u003e The ISS, as a space station in low Earth orbit, has become a core platform for scientific research and technological innovation due to its unique microgravity environment and long-term experimental capabilities. The ISS provides scientists with the opportunity to conduct experiments in a microgravity environment that cannot be replicated on Earth. Therefore, the ISS offers unparalleled opportunities and advantages for space life sciences and commercial scientific research (Grigoriev et al., 2009). For example, protein crystallization experiments have shown significant advantages in microgravity, which has helped advance new drug development. Studies have demonstrated that the microgravity environment can produce larger and more regular crystals, which are crucial for drug structure analysis ​(Harris, 2013).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis unique microgravity environment also offers valuable opportunities to study the effects of long-term spaceflight on human health. The ISS provides a long-term stable platform, allowing researchers to observe effects such as bone density loss and muscle atrophy over extended periods. Eyal and Derendorf (2019) emphasized that prolonged research on the ISS allows for an in-depth observation of astronauts' health changes, helping to improve related health issues on Earth. They also explored physiological and drug metabolism changes in the microgravity environment, calling for the development of personalized treatment options. Bajwa et al. (2021) highlighted the importance of personalized medicine in mitigating physiological changes during spaceflight and proposed its incorporation into future space missions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn addition to being a hub for scientific research, the ISS serves as an important platform for international collaboration. Scientists from multiple countries and disciplines can use this valuable resource to promote technology verification and development. For instance, NASA, along with its international partners, has used the ISS to advance technology verification across various industries, which is critical for future deep-space missions (Scimemi, 2015).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThrough the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, the ISS National Laboratory was established, allowing private enterprises and non-NASA government agencies to use the ISS to promote technological development and commercial innovation (Hatton, 2017). The ISS provides unprecedented opportunities for private enterprises to enter low Earth orbit and leverage the ISS platform for research and technology testing in a microgravity environment (Gatens, 2016).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Role of CASIS.\u003c/b\u003e Since 2011, CASIS has been responsible for managing the U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS, playing a key role in advancing scientific research, commercial applications, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. CASIS's mission is to maximize the utilization of the ISS platform for research and technological development, which has supported both academic and commercial projects, particularly in areas such as space science and space medicine, including protein crystallization and cell biology (Harris, 2013).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCASIS's management has led to significant progress in health technology innovation aboard the ISS, resulting in numerous advancements that benefit astronauts and life on Earth (Eyal \u0026amp; Derendorf, 2019). CASIS has also significantly contributed to the commercialization of low Earth orbit by encouraging private enterprises to participate in research. Scimemi (2015) pointed out that CASIS plays a central role in promoting ISS commercialization, particularly in attracting private enterprises to use the ISS for research. Through CASIS's promotion, programs such as the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) and Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) ensured consistent support for ISS cargo transport, facilitating sustainable research by private companies and enabling commercial research\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(Besha \u0026amp; MacDonald, 2016).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCASIS not only supports cross-disciplinary and cross-industry collaboration in fields ranging from biotechnology to materials science but also fosters relationships between public and private partners. CASIS approves and advocates for space research projects, encouraging private enterprises to conduct experiments aboard the ISS. It not only advances fundamental scientific research but also provides a fertile ground for commercialization, laying the foundation for coupling scientific research with commercial potential (Morgan, 2018).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe Influence of Policy on CASIS.\u003c/b\u003e Policies have been instrumental in shaping the management and development of CASIS. Since the enactment of the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, policies have driven CASIS's operations, particularly in the area of low Earth orbit commercialization. CASIS was granted the authority to manage 50% of ISS resources for the U.S. National Laboratory, promoting the implementation of both commercial and academic research on the ISS (Scimemi, 2015). CASIS's collaboration with NASA transformed the ISS from a NASA-centric research platform to one open to a wider range of institutions and enterprises.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe policy environment also laid the foundation for CASIS's success. Through policies such as the American Space Policy Directives, the U.S. government created a supportive regulatory environment. CASIS helped facilitate research projects by private enterprises and other sectors on the ISS, enabling them to utilize the unique microgravity environment for innovative research (Besha \u0026amp; MacDonald, 2016). These policies not only support research on the ISS but also align CASIS with broader space policy, innovation, and economic development goals.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespite CASIS's achievements, challenges remain. Scimemi (2015) noted that CASIS continues to face issues related to the sustainability of market demand for ISS-based research. Addressing these challenges requires aligning policy, commercialization efforts, and scientific research more closely to ensure long-term sustainability.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFuture research should explore how policy adjustments can further promote market demand and ISS commercialization. Some scholars suggest that closer connections between policy, commercialization, and scientific research could help address the market challenges and long-term sustainability issues faced by CASIS. This would not only facilitate the continued use of the ISS as a research platform but also promote further economic development in low Earth orbit (Morgan, 2018).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe ISS serves as an important platform for both scientific and commercial research in low Earth orbit, supporting research across multiple disciplines through its unique microgravity environment and long-term experimental capabilities. CASIS, as the managing entity of the U.S. National Laboratory, plays a critical role in promoting cross-disciplinary collaboration and the commercialization of scientific research. However, policy has played an indispensable role in driving CASIS's operations and development, especially in the commercialization of low Earth orbit. Although CASIS has achieved significant success with policy support, the challenges of market demand and sustainability still require further research and resolution.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Methodology","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis section details the data collection and preprocessing steps, as well as the sentiment analysis and topic modeling methods used to analyze CASIS-related policy data.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eData Collection and Preprocessing.\u003c/b\u003e The policy data for this study were collected from the Overton platform, focusing on policies related to CASIS. To ensure data integrity, we used the keywords \"CASIS\" and \"Center for the Advancement of Science in Space\" to gather relevant policies from 2011 to 2023, filtering by subject areas such as \"science and technology\" and \"economy, business, and finance.\" This initial search resulted in 757 records, which were further filtered by removing duplicates and noise, resulting in a final dataset of 466 policies. Manual annotation was used to classify the sentiment of each policy, using labels of -1, 0, and 1 to represent negative, neutral, and positive sentiment, respectively (Snow et al., 2008). This manual labeling ensured high-quality data for model training, laying a solid foundation for accurate data analysis and insightful research findings.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eSentiment Analysis.\u003c/b\u003e Sentiment analysis provides insights into the emotional tone of policy texts, allowing us to assess public and stakeholder attitudes toward CASIS. This analysis is crucial for understanding policy implementation effects and guiding future policy-making (Liu, 2012). Sentiment analysis was conducted on manually annotated policy data to analyze changes in sentiment over different years, thereby gaining insights into the dynamic evolution of the policy environment. For instance, we statistically analyzed the average sentiment scores from 2011 to 2023, providing a comprehensive analysis of sentiment for each year. BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) was used for sentiment analysis, as it is effective in capturing deep semantic meanings in text and performs well in natural language processing tasks (Devlin et al., 2019). Compared to traditional sentiment analysis methods, BERT can better understand context, thereby improving classification performance.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eTopic Analysis.\u003c/b\u003e Topic analysis aims to identify the underlying structure of policy texts, helping us understand the key areas of focus and development trends within policies. We used the BERTopic method to analyze the policy data related to CASIS. BERTopic is a topic modeling technique based on BERT. In this study, a fine-tuned BERT model was used within the BERTopic framework, combining the Transformer technique with contextual Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (c-TF-IDF) to create dense topic clusters, providing a more intuitive and easy-to-understand representation of underlying information, and extracting high-quality topics automatically (Grootendorst, 2022).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst, the fine-tuned BERT framework was used to enhance the embedding process, converting textual sentences and paragraphs into dense vector representations. Subsequently, the Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) algorithm was applied to reduce the dimensional representation of these document embeddings to two or three dimensions. Then, the HDBSCAN algorithm was used to identify clusters of different densities and designate some data points as noise or outliers. Finally, the c-TF-IDF method was employed to generate keywords for each topic cluster, forming dense, easy-to-understand topic representations. This methodology facilitated the identification of primary themes across the policy data, allowing for the analysis of key trends and developments within CASIS-related policies.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eTime Series Analysis of Topics.\u003c/b\u003e Time series analysis was conducted to track the evolution of topics over time. By analyzing the intensity of each theme at various time points, we were able to determine how CASIS's priorities shifted in response to changes in the broader policy landscape. A topic intensity coefficient\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:\\:{S}_{ij}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e was calculated for each theme at different time points, \u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:{T}_{i}=\\left\\{{t}_{i1},{t}_{i2},{t}_{i3},\\dots\\:,{t}_{in}\\right\\}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e,capturing its prominence over time. The formula used was:\u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Equa\" class=\"Equation\"\u003e\u003cdiv format=\"TEX\" class=\"mathdisplay\" id=\"FileID_Equa\" name=\"EquationSource\"\u003e\n$$\\:{S}_{ij}=\\alpha\\:\\bullet\\:{X}_{ij}+\\left(1-\\alpha\\:\\right){\\bullet\\:S}_{i\\left(j-1\\right)}$$\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cp\u003ewhere \u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:\\alpha\\:\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e is a balancing parameter between 0 and 1, and\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:{\\:X}_{ij}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e​ represents the intensity of theme \u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:i\\:\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003eat time \u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:{t}_{j}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e. This analysis provided a temporal perspective on policy focus, helping to identify long-term trends and fluctuations in government and public sentiment.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Results","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis section presents a rigorous and comprehensive analysis of CASIS policy data collected from 2011 to 2024. The results are divided into two main parts: sentiment analysis and topic modeling. Sentiment analysis describes the temporal evolution of attitudes toward CASIS, providing insights into the fluctuations in public and government support, while topic modeling elucidates key thematic elements, offering a deeper understanding of supporting and critical viewpoints. The goal of this analysis is to offer a broader explanation of CASIS's contributions and the challenges it faces. By combining sentiment and thematic perspectives, this section provides a holistic view of the evolving policy environment surrounding CASIS and its impact on the organization's role in space exploration.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eSentiment Analysis of Policy Data.\u003c/b\u003e Figure\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e shows the time series of CASIS policy data, with the x-axis representing time and the y-axis representing total data volume, positive sentiment volume, and negative sentiment volume. As shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e, policy data entries peaked in 2012 after CASIS was appointed to manage the U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS in 2011. This surge can be attributed to the newly established management authority, heightened expectations from government entities, and controversies surrounding the resignation of CASIS's executive director due to the organization's nonprofit status. The sudden increase in data volume not only reflects increased government interest but also the public's high expectations of CASIS's management capabilities. Subsequently, data volume decreased annually until 2018, when a report from NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) indicated that CASIS met expectations in only two out of nine assessed areas, prompting renewed attention and an increase in data volume, leading to significant discussions about CASIS's effectiveness. Following this, the data volume gradually stabilized.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePositive and negative sentiment data followed similar fluctuations to the total data volume, with positive sentiment consistently outweighing negative sentiment throughout most of the study period. This trend indicates that the government maintained support for CASIS despite controversies and operational challenges. Significant negative events further highlighted areas where CASIS required necessary reforms. The resilience of positive sentiment reflects a certain level of government confidence in CASIS's role in advancing space research.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEach data entry was labeled as positive (+\u0026thinsp;1), neutral (0), or negative (-1). Based on these labels, the annual average sentiment scores of CASIS policy data were calculated, as shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e. Despite some fluctuations, the average sentiment remained positive, indicating that the government's overall stance toward CASIS was favorable. The fluctuation of sentiment scores corresponds to key events that influenced public and government perceptions of CASIS's performance. For example, a decline in sentiment scores coincided with significant negative events, such as the resignation of the executive director in 2012, which sparked substantial controversy about the organization's governance and alignment with its mission. The 2018 OIG report highlighted underperformance in several operational areas, which further led to a decrease in the average sentiment score. This report brought inefficiencies within CASIS into focus, prompting critical evaluations by the government. The 2020 report by NASA's Independent Review Team (IRT) highlighted structural and management deficiencies within CASIS, which was another critical moment leading to a decrease in sentiment scores. Similarly, the 2022 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report criticized CASIS for underutilizing its User Advisory Group, underscoring the persistent challenges CASIS faced. These negative events were reflected in the sustained decline in sentiment scores over the subsequent years, indicating that governance issues had a lasting impact on public and government confidence in CASIS. Nevertheless, positive sentiment remained dominant, suggesting that despite operational setbacks, the government continued to recognize CASIS's potential and contributions to space research.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eTopic Analysis.\u003c/b\u003e This study employed topic modeling methods to analyze the underlying thematic structure of CASIS policy data. Unlike traditional methods that rely on a bag-of-words approach, such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), this study used BERTopic, which excels in generating contextual and sentence embeddings, thus providing a more nuanced understanding of the underlying structure. Figures\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan refid=\"Fig4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e display the results of applying BERTopic to positive and negative sentiment data, respectively. By using BERTopic, more contextually relevant themes were extracted, enriching the analysis of policy discourse.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003ePositive Sentiment Topic Analysis.\u003c/b\u003e As shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e, Topic 0 reflects a broad focus on scientific research and progress in policies. Scientific research has consistently been a key element of national development strategies. This theme reflects collective recognition in policies and among the public of the importance of science in driving technological innovation. Additionally, there is ongoing attention from the government on CASIS management and utilization, which demonstrates broad support for scientific research in space.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTopic 1 centers on agreements and collaborations between NASA and other nations and entities. Frequently occurring keywords such as \"agreement,\" \"cooperation,\" and \"authorization\" suggest a collaborative atmosphere where agreements are seen as mutually beneficial and foundational for advancing space exploration. The theme also emphasizes the positive perception of NASA's leadership in promoting global and interagency cooperation, which is seen as crucial for achieving significant advances in space science and long-term space exploration goals.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTopic 2 focuses on space science projects, particularly those led by the government and NASA. Keywords such as \"laboratory,\" \"research,\" and \"science\" indicate the significance of ongoing space science research. This theme highlights strong policy support for experimental and applied research, especially in areas such as space science research and technological innovation. Support for laboratory-driven scientific progress reflects confidence in its potential to drive new discoveries and contribute to the success of space exploration.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTopic 3 captures researchers' interest in microgravity research, particularly in specific areas such as protein crystallization. Keywords such as \"microgravity,\" \"crystallization,\" and \"protein\" indicate that this research area holds significant potential for breakthroughs in biomedicine and other scientific domains. The public and researchers appear optimistic about the transformative impact of these studies, particularly their potential to advance space science applications.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTopic 4 revolves around financial support for space research, focusing on funding, grants, and related financial provisions. The terms \"funding,\" \"grants,\" and \"research\" underscore the importance of financial investment in ensuring the feasibility of space-related experiments and projects. The government strongly supports these financial investments, viewing these grants as critical for achieving groundbreaking research and innovation in space exploration. Such investments are seen as key drivers of ambitious space research initiatives.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eKeywords of positive attitude.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"2\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTopic\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eKeywords\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNational, science, research, NASA, government, crew, agency, auspex, managed, reached\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNASA, agreement, cooperative, national, authorization, manage, management, laboratory, act, user\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eLaboratory, science, research, national, advancement, center, development, commercial, portion, international\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMicrogravity, research, crystallization, protein, science, release, experiment, said, immune, proposal\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMillion, NASA, funding, grant, research, experiment, proposal, fund, cost, manage\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eNegative Sentiment Topic Analysis.\u003c/b\u003e As shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e, Topic 0 highlights critical viewpoints from relevant institutions regarding NASA's reports and assessments. Keywords such as \"report,\" \"national,\" and \"found\" indicate that several audit agencies have pointed out management and operational issues in CASIS through their reports. The negative sentiment reflected in this theme suggests that the government or public may have concerns about CASIS's practices or the progress of space programs during this period. Although CASIS plays a central role in managing the ISS and assisting in space science development, the theme reveals the government's critical perspective on certain aspects of its work.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTopic 1 focuses on a set of specific criticisms related to leadership and organizational management. This topic is closely linked to the resignation of CASIS's executive director in 2012, who stepped down due to concerns that CASIS's collaboration with ProOrbis might jeopardize CASIS's nonprofit status. This event also sparked significant public debate, reflecting concerns about governance or strategic outcomes.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eKeywords of negative attitude.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"2\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTopic\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eKeywords\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNasa, report, national, research, crew, found, organization, time, laboratory, lab\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBecker, director, executive, nonprofit, Jeanne, ProOrbis, group, said, march, status\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eTime Series Analysis of Topic Intensity.\u003c/b\u003e The primary goal of time series analysis is to reveal patterns and trends in data sequences, which can then be used for prediction, interpretation, and decision-making. In this study, each year was considered a time window for calculating the intensity of positive and negative topics.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e, the time series of positive topics shows the evolution of relevant themes from 2011 to 2023. The curves for Topics 0 and 2 have similar trends; both topics experienced rapid growth in 2012, reaching their respective peaks, indicating that the government was highly focused on these themes (e.g., space science research and experimental research) at the time. However, the intensity of these topics significantly declined in subsequent years until hitting a low point in 2016. Between 2017 and 2018, both topics surged again, suggesting that new research hotspots or projects might have emerged, reigniting public and institutional interest. Thereafter, they declined again, indicating that the intensity of discussions on these topics stabilized around 2020. The trend of Topic 1 differed slightly from other topics. It remained relatively stable from 2011 to 2016 but showed significant growth starting in 2017. This suggests that collaboration between CASIS and other organizations or institutions began to grow significantly and garnered widespread attention. The gradual upward trend, in particular, indicates that the government has continued to support CASIS's collaborative activities.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFigure \u003cspan refid=\"Fig5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e also describes changes in the intensity of negative topics, which were primarily influenced by major negative events. Topic 0 peaked in 2018, then fluctuated downward. This was likely due to the 2018 report from NASA's OIG, which revealed that CASIS had met expectations in only two out of nine areas\u0026mdash;a significant negative event that attracted widespread attention. The peaks in 2020 and 2022 could also be attributed to negative reports released by the IRT team and GAO, which brought additional scrutiny. Topic 1 involved the resignation of CASIS's executive director in 2012, who resigned over concerns that collaboration with ProOrbis might jeopardize CASIS's nonprofit status, leading to controversy.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe time series topic intensity curves provide valuable insights into how government and public interest in space-related topics fluctuated, showing moments of peak engagement and periods of decline. These findings suggest that while CASIS's initiatives garnered considerable support, certain management and operational shortcomings led to skepticism and critical evaluations from the government and public. The juxtaposition of positive and negative sentiment themes reveals a complex situation in which CASIS is both praised for its innovative contributions and scrutinized for its governance and management issues. The purpose of this topic analysis is to provide a nuanced understanding of CASIS's multifaceted performance, recognizing both areas of significant achievement and those requiring targeted interventions for improvement.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe results from sentiment analysis and topic modeling of CASIS-related policy data reveal several major trends that reflect CASIS's strengths and challenges. Overall, government and public sentiment toward CASIS has remained positive, with peaks in sentiment corresponding to important milestones in the organization's development. For instance, the initial surge in policy attention from 2011 to 2012 reflects the enthusiasm surrounding CASIS's appointment as the managing entity for the U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS. This enthusiasm was largely driven by CASIS's mission to maximize the ISS as a platform for research and technological development. Positive sentiment themes often related to CASIS's role in advancing scientific research, promoting international collaboration, and fostering public-private partnerships.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHowever, the analysis also reveals periods of declining sentiment, often linked to controversial events that raised concerns about CASIS's management capabilities and operational efficiency. The notable decline in sentiment following the resignation of CASIS's executive director in 2012 and the 2018 report by NASA's OIG highlighted management challenges. Additionally, the 2020 IRT and 2022 GAO reports emphasized ongoing issues facing CASIS. These events drew attention to CASIS's management challenges, particularly its difficulties in meeting expectations in key performance areas.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe topic modeling results provided further insights into the key areas of focus in CASIS-related policies. Positive themes highlighted the importance of scientific research and international cooperation, with many policies underscoring CASIS's value in advancing space research. Specific research areas, such as microgravity research and protein crystallization, were also frequently mentioned, underscoring recognition of CASIS's contributions to scientific progress. These findings indicate that CASIS has played a leading role in guiding research efforts on the ISS, particularly in areas like space science and biomedicine that have the potential for significant impact.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOne significant aspect of the discussion is the divergence between the generally positive sentiment in policy analysis and the prevailing negative perception of CASIS's operations in the public domain. The results indicate that while CASIS faced considerable scrutiny and criticism, particularly regarding organizational restructuring and transparency, overall policy sentiment remained supportive. This divergence may be attributed to the government's continued confidence in CASIS's role in driving scientific progress and its ability to foster collaboration among stakeholders in the aerospace community. This finding challenges the prevailing narrative of CASIS's inefficacy, highlighting the complexity of its performance, which involves balancing diverse interests and navigating a dynamic policy environment.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnother key finding from the topic analysis is the emphasis on CASIS's role in promoting commercial space development. The analysis identified themes related to financial support, funding opportunities, and collaborations with private companies as significant topics in CASIS-related policies. These themes reflect the broader trend of commercializing low Earth orbit activities, with CASIS serving as a facilitator for private sector engagement in space research. This aligns with NASA's long-term strategy of transitioning the ISS from a government-funded research platform to a commercially supported one, with CASIS playing a central role in this transition.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe limitations of this research must also be acknowledged. The policy data analyzed in this study are limited to those available on the Overton platform, meaning that certain policies and directives, particularly those not publicly available, may not have been captured, thus not providing a comprehensive reflection of the policies and directives influencing CASIS's activities. Additionally, the manual annotation process, while aimed at improving accuracy, may introduce subjective biases. Sentiment analysis relies on text classification models that may introduce biases or inaccuracies when interpreting policy language. Despite these limitations, this study provides valuable contributions to understanding the role of policy in shaping CASIS's activities and performance.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003eSince its inception in 2011, CASIS has played a pivotal role in advancing U.S. aerospace endeavors through its management of the U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS and its facilitation of a wide range of scientific and commercial research projects. The analysis of CASIS-related policy data shows that public perception of the organization is generally positive, with key policy themes focusing on scientific progress, international cooperation, and public support for government-led space initiatives. Notably, this study finds that CASIS's efforts in areas such as protein crystallization and microgravity research are recognized for their significant contributions to scientific advancement.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHowever, CASIS has also faced challenges, particularly in the areas of management and leadership. Negative sentiment in policy discussions often reflects concerns about the transparency and effectiveness of nonprofit space organizations, highlighting areas where CASIS needs improvement. The findings suggest that despite these challenges, CASIS has successfully positioned itself as a key player in low Earth orbit research and commercialization.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLooking ahead, as the ISS transitions to greater commercial involvement, CASIS will need to navigate an increasingly complex policy environment. Future research should continue to monitor the evolving relationships between CASIS, NASA, and private sector partners, as well as the impact of policy changes on CASIS's ability to support scientific innovation. Additionally, further research should explore how CASIS can address its operational limitations and improve its transparency and governance to better align with stakeholder expectations.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study emphasizes the importance of policy in shaping CASIS's activities and its contributions to the broader space research community. Recognizing the challenges and opportunities brought about by the commercialization of low Earth orbit, CASIS must continue to adapt and innovate to maintain its relevance and effectiveness in the dynamic field of space research. The novelty of this study lies in its application of artificial intelligence techniques, particularly sentiment analysis and topic modeling, to evaluate space policies from an angle not widely covered before\u0026mdash;how policies influence the development and effectiveness of CASIS. The analysis spans over a decade, providing insights into the impact of key events on sentiment trends and policy focus. While the limitations of data source and potential biases must be considered, the findings of this study contribute to the understanding of decision-making in the context of space commercialization.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe methods employed in this study can also be applied to evaluate the impact of policies on other scientific and technological organizations, such as NASA, ESA, or private aerospace companies. By utilizing sentiment analysis and topic modeling, stakeholders can better understand how public policy and sentiment influence strategic decision-making and organizational effectiveness, thereby offering broader applications for these technologies in evaluating the intersection of policy and innovation.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eData availability\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCompeting interests\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe author(s) declare no competing interests.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEthical approval\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInformed consent\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor contributions\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAuthor contributions were written in cover letters.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eBajwa, J., Munir, U., Nori, A., \u0026amp; Williams, B. (2021). Artificial intelligence in healthcare: Transforming the practice of medicine. \u003cem\u003eFuture Healthcare Journal\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e8\u003c/em\u003e(2), e188\u0026ndash;e194. https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.2021-0095\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eBesha, P., \u0026amp; MacDonald, A. (2016). Economic development of low earth orbit. \u003cem\u003eNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).\u003c/em\u003e NP-2016-03-2140-HQ.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eDevlin, J., Chang, M.-W., Lee, K., \u0026amp; Toutanova, K. (2019). \u003cem\u003eBERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understanding\u003c/em\u003e (arXiv:1810.04805). arXiv. http://arxiv.org/abs/1810.04805\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eEyal, S., \u0026amp; Derendorf, H. (2019). Medications in Space: In Search of a Pharmacologist\u0026rsquo;s Guide to the Galaxy. \u003cem\u003ePharmaceutical Research\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e36\u003c/em\u003e(10), 148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11095-019-2679-3\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eGatens, R. (2016). Commercializing low-Earth orbit and the role of the International Space Station. \u003cem\u003e2016 IEEE Aerospace Conference\u003c/em\u003e, 1\u0026ndash;8. https://doi.org/10.1109/AERO.2016.7500763\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eGrigoriev, A. I., Williams, R. S., Comtois, J.-M., Damann, V., Tachibana, S., Nicogossian, A. E., Bogomolov, V. V., Pool, S. L., Sargsyan, A. E., Knowingkov, O. L., \u0026amp; Doarn, C. R. (2009). Space medicine policy development for the International Space Station. \u003cem\u003eActa Astronautica\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e65\u003c/em\u003e(5\u0026ndash;6), 603\u0026ndash;612. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2009.03.005\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eGrootendorst, M. (2022). \u003cem\u003eBERTopic: Neural topic modeling with a class-based TF-IDF procedure\u003c/em\u003e (arXiv:2203.05794). arXiv. http://arxiv.org/abs/2203.05794\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eHarris, B. (2013, September 10). ISS Utilization and Advancing Research in Space. \u003cem\u003eAIAA SPACE 2013 Conference and Exposition\u003c/em\u003e. AIAA SPACE 2013 Conference and Exposition, San Diego, CA. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2013-5392\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eHatton, S. (Ed.). (2017). \u003cem\u003eProceedings of the 12th Reinventing Space Conference\u003c/em\u003e. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34024-1\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eJoseph, C., \u0026amp; Wood, D. (2019). Understanding Socio-Technical Issues Affecting the Current Microgravity Research Marketplace. \u003cem\u003e2019 IEEE Aerospace Conference\u003c/em\u003e, 1\u0026ndash;10. https://doi.org/10.1109/AERO.2019.8742202\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eLiu, B. (2012). \u003cem\u003eSentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining\u003c/em\u003e. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-02145-9\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eMorgan, D. (2018). The International Space Station (ISS) and the Administration\u0026apos;s Proposal to End Direct NASA Funding by 2025. \u003cem\u003eCongressional Research Service (CRS) Reports and Issue Brief.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eOverton. (2024) Open Policy Ltd. https://app.overton.io/dashboard.php. Accessed: 20 November 2023.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eScimemi, S. J. (2015, August 31). The International Space Station and the Commercialization of Low Earth Orbit. \u003cem\u003eAIAA SPACE 2015 Conference and Exposition\u003c/em\u003e. AIAA SPACE 2015 Conference and Exposition, Pasadena, California. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2015-4581\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eSnow, R., O\u0026rsquo;connor, B., Jurafsky, D., \u0026amp; Ng, A. Y. (2008, October). Cheap and fast\u0026ndash;but is it good? evaluating non-expert annotations for natural language tasks. In Proceedings of the 2008 conference on empirical methods in natural language processing (pp. 254-263).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5271894/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5271894/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eOver the past two decades, particularly in low Earth orbit, the sustained operation of the International Space Station (ISS) has significantly promoted the growth of the U.S. commercial space industry. Specifically, the U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS, managed by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), has played a crucial role in advancing space commercialization. The effective operation of CASIS is also greatly influenced by government policies, particularly from NASA. However, there is limited research from a policy perspective that examines the role of CASIS and the U.S. National Laboratory in developing commercial space activities. To better understand the evolution of CASIS, this study utilizes CASIS policy data and employs artificial intelligence methods, such as sentiment analysis and topic modeling, to reveal CASIS's development trends and the sentiment of both government and public toward its initiatives. The findings indicate that, despite significant negative events, such as organizational restructuring and negative scrutiny, the overall sentiment of policies related to CASIS remains positive. CASIS has been criticized for mismanagement while also being praised for its contributions to space science innovation. Furthermore, this study highlights key themes related to CASIS's development, such as scientific innovation and international collaboration, emphasizing its leadership role in research projects, especially in microgravity. These findings lay the foundation for understanding how policy guides CASIS's development and its broader impact on the aerospace sector. Additionally, this study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of how policy influences CASIS's efficiency, governance, and strategic direction, contributing to broader discussions on space commercialization policy-making and offering insights for future policy interventions to enhance CASIS's role and capabilities.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Analyzing CASIS Policy Data with AI: Sentiment Trends and Topic Modeling","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-11-15 14:39:00","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5271894/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"91b7ce59-c2c5-4d39-a878-8f816993b687","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 15th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":40246896,"name":"Social science/Science technology and society"},{"id":40246897,"name":"Social science/Social policy"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-11-15T14:39:01+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-11-15 14:39:00","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-5271894","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-5271894","identity":"rs-5271894","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}