Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin Company

Honeybee Robotics successfully completed thermal vacuum testing of its Lunar Array Mast and Power System (LAMPS) for NASA's Vertical Solar Array Technology program. Read more about this milestone and how it’s advancing the prospect of a lunar power grid: https://lnkd.in/gjvq-p7j Photo Credit: NASA/David DeHoyos #LAMPS #VSAT #NASA #HoneybeeRobotics

Today, we honor those who lost their lives due to the tragic events of September 11, 2001. One hundred forty million miles from Manhattan, Spirit and Opportunity sit on the surface of Mars with a tribute to these individuals. The rovers' Rock Abrasion Tools are adorned with cable shields manufactured from World Trade Center metal and affixed with the American flag. This year, Honeybee Robotics donated one of the two cable shields remaining Earth-side to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. We hope it serves as a small reminder that those fallen are memorialized beyond this world. Read more about the Mars tribute: https://lnkd.in/gggzA9bU

For over 20 years, Honeybee Robotics has been testing hardware in the polar desert of Devon Island.   During a recent trip, the Honeybee team used a planetary drill to characterize its behavior in icy permafrost materials while supporting research on the seismic network and the collection of biological samples. Devon Island's harsh environment makes it the world's largest uninhabited island, but it's also why scientists are so drawn to it. With a landscape similar to the Moon and Mars, testing hardware here allows Honeybee to refine our operations for when we reach our ultimate destination. #DevonIsland #MarsAnalog #MoonAnalog #HoneybeeRobotics

Picture this: A telescope capable of surveying hundreds of millions of galaxies up to the very edge of the observable universe. 🔭🌌   That's the mission that lies ahead for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and its Wide Field Instrument, featuring Honeybee Robotics actuators. With delivery complete to NASA, the Wide Field Instrument now moves on to testing and integration.   Read more: https://lnkd.in/gv6VQJgF

Continuous power and communication access is essential for surviving the harsh lunar environment. Honeybee Robotics’ Lunar Utility Navigation with Advanced Remote Sensing and Autonomous Beaming for Energy Redistribution (LUNARSABER) is a scalable utility solution, capable of connecting lunar assets and extending human and robotic operations on the Moon. Watch our latest demonstration of a scaled LUNARSABER prototype on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gj_W8k83 #LUNARSABER #HoneybeeRobotics #DARPA #LunA10

Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, will be at SmallSat in Logan, UT, from August 3 to 8. Visit us at booth #146 in the Field House to talk shop about our motion control mechanisms and control electronics. #SmallSat2024 #HoneybeeRobotics #SADA #TwistCapsules #Gimbals #Actuators #Controllers

Honeybee's lunar ice-mining drill, TRIDENT, isn't the only hardware we have on NASA's #VIPER rover. We also provided Brushless DC Motors to drive VIPER's pan/tilt axes for its high-gain communication system and navigation cameras. From modular components to complete systems, Honeybee's hardware is helping achieve lunar permanence and deeper space exploration. Learn more about Honeybee's flight-proven BLDC motors: https://lnkd.in/dfNhMNHD Image: NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

At the lunar south pole, permanently shadowed regions may hold valuable resources. To lighten the dark side of the Moon, Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin Company has created DIABLO, a deployable mast technology capable of reaching soaring heights to capture solar energy on the lunar surface. 

We have a few more integrated #BlueGhost payloads to show before we ship for environmental testing! Next up is the Lunar PlanetVac (LPV) developed by Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin Company. LPV will deploy to the Moon’s surface and demonstrate pneumatic sample collection of lunar regolith by collecting and sorting regolith within its sample collection chamber. 

It's International Women in Engineering Day, and we're grateful to all our women engineers for their contributions to unlocking the potential of space. We caught up with Mary Ankenbauer, motion control manufacturing engineer, to find out what she enjoys most about being an engineer at Honeybee. "I love spending time on the production floor and participating in the fabrication process. It's staggering to think how inanimate piece parts become a powerful functioning space mechanism," says Ankenbauer. "My favorite product line is our twist capsules! As an intern, I thought they were the most remarkable electromechanical hardware. When I became a full-time manufacturing engineer, one of my first projects was building a twist capsule, which felt like a serendipitous opportunity. The project opened my eyes to how twist capsules work, and the idea of flexible circuits still blows my mind. Some day, I hope to see one integrated on a satellite." Here's to women engineering new possibilities for our next generation of explorers. 🚀 #womeninengineering #INWED #womeninSTEM #aerospaceengineering