SwampWorks

Swamp Works is a NASA-led, hands-on development facility located at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its mission is to foster innovation for space exploration and benefit both space-focused endeavors and life on Earth. The team at Swamp Works collaborates closely with partners from NASA, industry, and academia to bring innovative exploration mission solutions to life.

The primary goal of Swamp Works is to accelerate innovation for NASA, which in turn helps support government and commercial space ventures with technologies essential for missions such as landing and living on the Moon and other celestial bodies in our solar system. This is achieved through a "make it, test it, and improve it" model, where projects undergo multiple generations of builds, each aimed at incrementally improving upon the previous version.

This iterative approach allows for quantum leaps in technology advancement, as researchers continuously learn from each other's work.

Swamp Works is equipped with world-class expertise in various areas, including granular mechanics and regolith operations, electrostatics and surface physics, robotics integration, assembly, and more. The facility boasts a range of state-of-the-art testing facilities, such as the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations (GMRO) Laboratory, which offers a 120-ton lunar regolith simulant pit for testing robotic rovers, like Astrobotic's CubeRover.

Astrobotic, a Pittsburgh-based space robotics company, relies on these facilities to evaluate how its CubeRover would perform on the Moon.

Other key areas of focus at Swamp Works include electrostatics and surface physics, which aims to protect flight hardware and launch equipment from electrostatic discharges and develop technologies to manage lunar and Martian dust. By harnessing the power of electrostatics, researchers are designing filters to remove dust from air and repelling dust from surfaces using electrostatic forces.

Swamp Works plays a crucial role in supporting NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon and eventually establish a presence on Mars. Technologies developed at the facility are integrated into multiple programs managed by NASA's Space Technology, Exploration Systems Development, and Space Operations Mission Directorates, as well as various partnerships with private industry.

Funding for Swamp Works' initiatives comes from NASA's Space Technology, Exploration Systems Development, and Space Operations Mission Directorates, along with other NASA centers and funding agreements with private companies.