Honeybee Robotics PlanetVac on Masten Lander

Sample acquisition is one of the most critical and at the same time most difficult operations on the surface of a planetary body. For the past 10 years, funded via SBIR Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 (funding provided by the Planetary Society), Honeybee Robotics has been developing a pneumatic based sample acquisition and transfer system. The system resembles a terrestrial vacuum cleaner (hence PlanetVac) but it works in vacuum (terrestrial vacuum cleaners do not work in vacuum). With Masten Space Systems (Masten), Honeybee Robotics plans to test a full scale PlanetVac system and demonstrate a touch and go sample acquisition and capture. The demonstrations will include 1. take off and landing, 2. sample acquisition and capture into onboard container, 3. take off (and landing). The demonstrations will take place in Mojave Desert, which resembles planetary surfaces covered with regolith (Mars, Moon, Asteroids).

SBIR Phase I (2016)
PlanetVac website at the Planetary Society

2014 IEEE Aerospace Conference paper: PlanetVac: Pneumatic regolith sampling system. Technology Maturation The PlanetVac technology has been steadily climbing up the TRL ladder and it is now at TRL4. The pneumatic system has been tested in a vacuum chamber at 1/6th G (on zero-g airplane) and demonstrated excavation efficiency of 1:6000 (1 gram of N2 gas at 6 psia lofted equivalent 6000 grams of JSC-1a lunar soil simulant). The scaled model of PlanetVac was also fabricated and tested in a large vacuum chamber (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzMn5DbhpjE).

The technology allows for a small, lightweight sample acquisition system for use in microgravity that does not require electrical power. It will help future NASA lander missions. Future Customers This project will help to bring PlanetVac to TRL 5/6 and position PlanetVac technology for several missions from Asteroids, Comets, Mars, and the Moon including NASA New Frontiers: Lunar South Pole Aitken Sample Return, Mars Sample Return, and Comet Nucleus Sample Return.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 6) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.