Honeybee Robotics

Honeybee Robotics is a Brooklyn, New York-headquartered robotics and spacecraft systems company with additional locations in Pasadena, California, and Colorado, Texas. The company was founded in January of 1983 by Stephen Gorevan and Chris Chapman, but was acquired by Ensign-Bickford in 2017.

Specifically, Honeybee Robotics develops tooling systems for future rover missions to Mars, Venus, the Moon, two Jovian moons, asteroids, comets, and more. The company has previously worked with Bigelow Aerospace to develop designs for a solar array deployment mechanism used on the solar arrays of its Genesis inflatable space habitat.

Honeybee has developed various robotic devices and tools for use on Mars; some of the toolings include:

RAT on the Mars Rover Opportunity. The tool is roughly the size of a soda can.

The Rock Abrasion Tool, also known as RAT, was a tool used on both Mars Exploration Rovers. The tool was installed as a grinding and brushing installation on the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, known as Spirit and Opportunity, both of which landed on Mars in January 2004. The tool was operated by Honeybee Robotics for the duration of the time on Mars.

RAT was the first machine that was capable of gaining access to the interior side of rocks on another planet and is equipped with a diamond dust and resin wheel drill that spins at 3000 rpm to cut 45mm in diameter and 5mm depth into "martian rocks." After the boreholes are drilled, RAT uses two brushes to sweep dust and particles in for collection and further inspection.

The Icy Soil Acquisition Device, also known as ISAD and sometimes the Pheonix Scoop, is a soil scoop and precision ice-sampling tool that was successfully used on the 2008 Mars Pheonix Lander mission.