Management Center. Table 3.3 provides a representative sample of astrophysics data archived by NASA and demonstrates a similar trend in the space sciences.

Technology for data storage and computation continues to improve at a rate consistent with the capability to handle the rapid growth of accumulated data in the observational sciences. Scientists worldwide will have to adapt their research strategies to make effective use of these new data.¹² Although state-of-the-art projects can manage the increasingly large data volumes, perhaps with difficulty, other users, especially in developing countries, are unlikely to be able to access or effectively use such data for their own research.

As the previous discussion indicates, basic scientific research has become ever more internationalized as a result of several factors: the expanding capabilities of communication and computation networks, the capabilities for conducting high-quality science in increasing numbers of countries, and the economic driving force for sharing the high costs of large projects. These factors have led to the formation of new organizational paradigms and methods of data management. Consequences of this internationalization have been more and higher-quality science, faster progress, and ever more international involvement. These opportunities have appeared at all levels, from individual investigator and small-group science to large-scale "big science" projects.