Just musing about an random idea I had, but what if we could fund space exploration programs as a bonus to long time players who have nations that can spare the cash and resources? They could claim areas of planets and asteroids, mine resources, build colonies, and fight wars in space. As a bonus, it would be a cash sink for nations who are very powerful. I'm thinking about rules something along the lines of this:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/47055/high-frontier