Longtime - from 1983 - and fairly extensively SBIR involved, Honeybee Robotics is a small spacecraft technology and robotics company headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, with offices in Pasadena, CA and Longmont, CO. In January 2022, it was announced that Jeff Bezos Blue Origin space venture would buy Honeybee Robotics, a pioneer in rover hardware. it was further announced that Blue Origin would retain Honeybee as a separate entity and with no notable changes to its products or customers. Honeybee Robotics had been a part of the Mars robotics team since its inception in the 1990s and the firm's rovers -- Curiosity and Spirit -- were laying the foundation for another generation of astronauts to dream the possible. The firm has particular expertise in developing and operating small mechanical tools used on Mars missions. Some of the robotic devices it has developed and successfully demonstrated on Mars included: The Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) instruments used on both Mars Exploration Rovers[5] The Icy Soil Acquisition Device (ISAD), sometimes called the "Phoenix Scoop,"[6] a soil scoop and a precision ice-sampling tool successfully demonstrated on the 2008 Mars Phoenix Lander mission The Sample Manipulation System and Dust Removal Tool used on the Mars Science Laboratory mission, which landed in August 2012. In addition, they are developing tools to be used to live and work on the moon as part of NASA's Constellation program.[8] Honeybee is currently developing systems for future missions to Mars, Venus, the moon, two Jovian moons, and asteroid and comet sample return, among others. They have worked with Bigelow Aerospace to develop a preliminary design for a solar array deployment mechanism that would be used on the solar arrays of their Genesis inflatable space habitat. Terrestrial projects include developing mechanisms, installations, and systems for a broad array of clients. As anexampl,e the firm's Electric Submersable Pumps (ESPs) have been identified by a major international oil and gas firm as the most effiicent and econmical materials lift method on a cost-per-barrel basis.
