ABSTRACT
Space exploration is a captivating endeavor, not only for discovering the unknown, but also for overcoming difficult technical challenges. This chapter aims to understand the culture, objectives, and technical challenges of the space industry in order to understand how additive manufacturing can be infused for the benefit of space exploration. The International Space Station project has shown how modular vehicle architecture supports widespread collaboration and incremental building, which enables sustainable long-term exploration and capability development. In addition to describing the potential technical impacts of additive manufacturing on space exploration, the chapter discusses three of John Kotter’s steps as applied to the adoption of additive manufacturing including development of a change vision, generation of short-term wins, and incorporation of changes into culture. Space systems are highly complex and manufactured in low volumes, and the characteristics align well with scenarios where additive manufacturing offers great cost benefit.
