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Amazon boss Bezos’s Blue Origin to buy asteroid mining company Honeybee Robotics

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Amazon owner Jeff Bezos’s aerospace company Blue Origin is to acquire a robotic asteroid mining startup called Honeybee Robotics.

Honeybee Robotics has operations in Longmont, Colorado and Altadena, California, and will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Blue Origin, headquartered in Kent, Washington.

The deal between Honeybee’s parent organization, Ensign-Bickford Industries, and Blue Origin is expected to close in mid-February. [Read more…] about Amazon boss Bezos’s Blue Origin to buy asteroid mining company Honeybee Robotics

Honeybee Robotics acquired by Ensign-Bickford Industries

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Specialist robotic spacecraft developer will maintain its course through the galaxy, say new owners

Honeybee Robotics has been acquired by Ensign-Bickford Industries, a 181-year-old privately held corporation with headquarters in Simsbury, Connecticut. 

Honeybee builds robotic spacecraft for Nasa and has delivered systems for the past three Mars landers, and is developing a mining robot which could extract precious resources from asteroids.

Following the acquisition, Honeybee Robotics will be a stand-alone, wholly-owned subsidiary of EBI and will complement EBI’s current aerospace and defense subsidiary, Eba-d.

Honeybee will continue to operate from its current facilities in Brooklyn, New York, Longmont, Colorado, and Pasadena, California.  [Read more…] about Honeybee Robotics acquired by Ensign-Bickford Industries

Honeybee Robotics wins Nasa funding for six spacecraft projects

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Honeybee Robotics has received four Nasa Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I awards and two Nasa Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I award to develop new spacecraft systems and enabling technologies.

The awards will allow Honeybee to analyze concepts for advanced future planetary exploration, sampling, in-situ resource utilization, and on-orbit operations.  [Read more…] about Honeybee Robotics wins Nasa funding for six spacecraft projects

Honeybee Robotics to build starship to help Nasa find flatulent aliens on Mars

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Honeybee to build complicated component for spacecraft 

Nasa has contracted Honeybee Robotics to help build a starship that will explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no human has gone before.

Specifically, Honeybee Robotics has begun development of the Side Hatch Gearbox Assembly for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Spacecraft Crew Module.  [Read more…] about Honeybee Robotics to build starship to help Nasa find flatulent aliens on Mars

Nasa to send robots to Moon, Mars and comets to fetch water

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Honeybee robotic spacecraft could land on a comet and extract water and bring it back to Earth

Honeybee robotic spacecraft to fly around space and extract water from anything it lands on  

Nasa has decided to pour money into a project by Honeybee Robotics to build robots that fly around space, collecting water from different planets and celestial objects.

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Neither Nasa nor Honeybee has made public the exact amount of money to be placed in the pot, but a source close to the story said it was a “sweet deal” and that it would be spread over many years.  [Read more…] about Nasa to send robots to Moon, Mars and comets to fetch water

Honeybee Robotics begins field testing Planetary Deep Drill system

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Honeybee’s Planetary Deep Drill will be tested to reach 100 feet in Mars analog environment at USG Corporation’s gypsum quarry in California

Honeybee Robotics is beginning a new phase of development of its Planetary Deep Drill, a lightweight and portable drill designed eventually to reach kilometers below the surface of icy formations in the Martian polar caps, Enceladus, or Europa.

After validating the drill’s performance in laboratory tests, the company is now undertaking field trials at a gypsum quarry, where rock formations provide conditions analogous to drilling through future planetary targets.

At USG Corporation’s gypsum quarry near the Salton Sea, California, Honeybee will select a formation of rock with strength similar to cryogenic ice. [Read more…] about Honeybee Robotics begins field testing Planetary Deep Drill system