Swamp Works

KSC Swamp Works

Established	2012; 12 years ago (2012)
Research type	Unclassified
Director	Robert Mueller
Location	Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Operating agency	NASA
Website	Swamp Works website

The Swamp Works is a lean-development, rapid innovation environment at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.^[1][2][3][4] It was founded in 2012,^[5] when four laboratories in the Surface Systems Office were merged into an enlarged facility with a modified philosophy for rapid technology development.^[6] Those laboratories are the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations Lab,^[7] the Electrostatics and Surface Physics Lab,^[8] the Applied Chemistry Lab,^[9] and the Life Support and Habitation Systems (LSHS) team.^[10] The first two of these are located inside the main Swamp Works building, while the other two use the facility although their primary work is located elsewhere. The team developed the Swamp Works operating philosophy from Kelly Johnson's Skunk Works, including the "14 Rules of Management", from the NASA development shops of Wernher von Braun, and from the innovation culture of Silicon Valley.^[11][12][13] The team prototypes space technologies rapidly to learn early in the process how to write better requirements, enabling them to build better products, rapidly, and at reduced cost. It was named the Swamp Works for similarity with the Skunk Works and the Phantom Works, but branded by the widespread marshes (swamps) on the Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island property of the Kennedy Space Center. The Swamp Works was co-founded by NASA engineers and scientists Jack Fox, Rob Mueller, and Philip Metzger. The logo, a robotic alligator, was designed by Rosie Mueller, a professional designer and the spouse of Rob Mueller.^{[citation needed]}