Abstract
Ever since the advent of the space race in the late 1950s, which culminated with the historic human moon landing of the Apollo 11 lunar mission crew, extraterrestrial exploration continues to gain interest in the scientific community. This is further highlighted by the commercialization of the space economy which has led to the emergence of innovative companies such as Space X, Redwire, Blue Origin, Thales Alenia Space, etc. While the relevance of space explorations continues to increase, so does the danger and complexity related to these activities as demonstrated by the fatal incidents of the Soyuz 11 and Columbia spacecraft. Therefore, the safety concerns -crew and payload- must be addressed. These concerns are inherently tied to launch capabilities, which are constrained by mass, volume, and eventually cost. For this reason, the Factory in Space (FIS) concept was introduced. FIS presents the possibility of manufacturing, assembly, servicing, repurposing, repair & refurbishing, and maintenance outside of the earth’s atmosphere. Furthermore, ambitious missions in the future would not be feasible utilizing the current method of launching a fully functional and integrated system on a single vehicle. Gradually, space systems are being built with a certain level of modularity. This would allow basic platforms to be launched and later built/assembled in space. This study aims to evaluate the role of modular space systems in the ecosystem of FIS.