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Honeybee Robotics — PlanetVac & Planetary Tools Cluster

Last updated: Session 22, 2026-04-06. Stale refresh 2026-04-07: IM-5 CLPS rover win added to timeline; JAXA MMX launch window confirmed Nov 2026.

Summary

Honeybee Robotics (Blue Origin subsidiary since 2022) has 5 FO projects spanning 2017-2026, all under PI Kris Zacny or his team, covering sample acquisition, dust removal, soil strength, and regolith oxygen extraction. The crown jewel is PlanetVac — a pneumatic regolith sampler that went from FO parabolic flights on Masten Xombie (2017-2019) to successfully collecting lunar regolith on the Moon via Blue Ghost Mission 1 (March 2, 2025). PlanetVac is also flying to Phobos on JAXA's MMX mission (launching 2026), making it one of the strongest FO→Moon→interplanetary outcome chains in the entire portfolio.

Honeybee's total NASA contract portfolio exceeds $186M, with the largest single award being $116.47M for the Dragonfly Titan lander.

FO Projects

# ID Title TRL Period PI Status
1 89413 PlanetVac on Masten Lander (Phase 1) 4→6 2017-05 to 2019-02 Kris Zacny Completed
2 106599 PlanetVac-Xombie2 (Phase 2) 5→6 2019-10 to 2021-04 Kris Zacny Completed
3 145004 POCCET Dust Removal Tool 5→5 2022-06 to 2025-09 Kris Zacny Completed (zero TRL gain)
4 106621 ASSET Asteroid Soil Strength 5→6 2021-02 to 2026-02 Kris Zacny Completed
5 106632 H-BEE Regolith O2 Extraction 4→5 2021-12 to 2025-03 Nicholas Naclerio Completed

Also co-I on: SPARTA regolith penetrometer 106611, 106730 (JPL-led)

The PlanetVac Arc — FO's Third Lunar Landing

Origin: Planetary Society + SBIR (2009-2017)

PlanetVac's development began with Planetary Society funding in 2013 and 2018, plus SBIR Phase 1/2/3 awards. The concept: a pneumatic "vacuum cleaner in reverse" that blasts compressed gas at regolith to loft it into a collection chamber. Works in vacuum (unlike actual vacuum cleaners). Developed over 10+ years by Kris Zacny at Honeybee.

FO Validation: Masten Xombie Flights (2017-2021)

Phase 1 [89413]: PlanetVac flew on Masten Space Systems' Xombie rocket (VTVL vehicle), testing the sampling head integrated into a lander leg footpad. Validated sample acquisition and delivery in a rocket plume + landing environment. TRL 4→6.

Phase 2 [106599]: Updated sampler with improved plume/thermal effects measurement. Tested on Masten Xombie2. Validated sample sorting and multiple collection modes. TRL 5→6. Co-Is: Gale Paulsen, Philip Chu, Justin Spring.

The Masten Xombie was the critical test platform — it provided a realistic powered descent + landing environment that parabolic flights can't simulate. This is one of the rare FO projects where the flight provider (Masten) was essential to the test fidelity, not just a ride.

CLPS Selection and Blue Ghost Mission 1 (2019-2025)

NASA selected PlanetVac as a CLPS payload through Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1. The relevant NASA contract: 80MSFC20C0007 ($6.31M, 2019-2025) — "acquiring and transferring regolith from the lunar surface to instruments and sample return containers."

Blue Ghost Mission 1: - Launched January 15, 2025 on SpaceX Falcon 9 - Landed Mare Crisium, Moon, March 2, 2025 — first fully successful commercial Moon landing - 14 days of surface operations (346 hours of daylight + 5 hours into lunar night) - PlanetVac successfully collected, transferred, and sorted lunar regolith using pressurized nitrogen gas - Sample collection took approximately one second - PlanetVac operated from just above the surface without touching it - Firefly met 100% of mission objectives

This makes PlanetVac the third FO-validated technology to reach the lunar surface, after NDL/Psionic (IM-1, Feb 2024) and RadPC/Montana State (Blue Ghost, Mar 2025).

JAXA MMX Mission to Phobos (2023-2031)

A PlanetVac variant called the P-Sampler was shipped to JAXA in February 2023 for integration with the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft. MMX is scheduled to: - Launch 2026 to Mars orbit - Land on Phobos (Mars' larger moon) - Collect sample using P-Sampler (pneumatic gas lofting) - Return samples to Earth in 2031

This makes PlanetVac one of the very few NASA-funded technologies with a clear pathway from suborbital flight test → Moon → Mars system. The Planetary Society partially funded early development, making this a rare public-private-international funding chain: Planetary Society → SBIR → FO → CLPS (NASA) → MMX (JAXA).

The Other FO Projects

POCCET [145004] — Dead End (TRL 5→5)

Miniature vibration-based dust removal tool for JPL's PUFFER rover. Completed 2022-2025 with zero TRL gain despite 7 as target. Likely feed into Honeybee's broader dust mitigation portfolio (LAMPS Dust Tolerant Connector, Blue Origin lunar surface tools).

ASSET [106621] — Modest Advance (TRL 5→6)

Asteroid soil strength measurement via dual-plunger penetrometer in microgravity. Addresses knowledge gap for NEA sample missions. Feeds Blue Origin's stated asteroid mining agenda. Team includes soil mechanics experts from UAF (Jerome Johnson, Anton Kulchitsky).

H-BEE [106632] — Early Stage (TRL 4→5)

Honey analog for molten regolith oxygen extraction — studying bubble dynamics in reduced gravity. Targets lunar ISRU (regolith is ~45% oxygen by mass). PI Nicholas Naclerio (also co-I on ASSET).

Honeybee's Full NASA Portfolio

From USASpending (NASA contracts only):

Contract Amount Description Period
80GSFC19C0022 $116.47M Dragonfly — Titan rotorcraft lander 2018-2027
80NSSC20C0677 $15.39M One-Meter Class Drilling for Planetary Exploration 2020-2026
80LARC21CA006 $7.71M LAMPS — Lunar Array Mast and Power System 2021-2024
80KSC020P0021 $7.61M TRIDENT drill for PRIME-1 2020-2025
80GSFC23CA030 $7.13M Mars Sample Return Earth Entry System 2022-2023
80MSFC20C0007 $6.31M Lunar regolith acquisition and transfer (PlanetVac-related) 2019-2025
80NSSC20C0017 $5.78M Pneumatic Excavation Mechanism for Lunar ISRU 2020-2022
NNG06EA90C $5.77M Sample Manipulation System 2006-2014
80HQTR19C0024 $3.92M RedWater — ice extraction via coiled tubing 2019-2023
+ 15 more ~$17M Various SBIR/drilling/sample handling 2009-2026
Total $193M+

Honeybee is the largest planetary instrumentation company by NASA contract value in the FO portfolio (excluding launch/lander companies like Astrobotic).

Kris Zacny

VP and Director of Exploration at Honeybee Robotics. PI or co-I on 53+ TechPort projects (largest PI footprint found in FO investigation). Spans: PlanetVac, TRIDENT drill, ASSET, POCCET, Auto-Gopher, RedWater, PRIME-1, Ocean Worlds drill, various SBIR sample handling systems. One of the most prolific and consequential planetary instrumentation researchers in the US space program.

Timeline

Year Event
2009+ SBIR Phase 1/2/3 for pneumatic sampling
2013 Planetary Society funds PlanetVac prototype testing
2017-2019 FO Phase 1: PlanetVac on Masten Xombie [89413]
2018 Planetary Society funds second PlanetVac test campaign
2019-2021 FO Phase 2: PlanetVac-Xombie2 [106599]
2019 NASA CLPS PlanetVac contract awarded ($6.31M)
2022 Honeybee acquired by Blue Origin
2022 Masten Space Systems bankrupt (test platform gone)
2023 Feb P-Sampler (PlanetVac variant) shipped to JAXA for MMX
2025 Jan 15 Blue Ghost Mission 1 launches
2025 Mar 2 PlanetVac collects lunar regolith — 1-second pneumatic blast
2025 Mar 16 Blue Ghost surface operations end (14 days)
2026 Mar 24 NASA IM-5 CLPS award ($180.4M) — Honeybee rover + NIRVSS on Intuitive Machines Nova-D to Lunar South Pole (Mons Malapert)
2026 Nov (target) JAXA MMX launches to Phobos
2027 Late (target) Blue Moon MK1 delivers VIPER rover (CS-7, ~$190M) to Lunar South Pole
2028 Firefly Blue Ghost 3 CP-21 mission to Gruithuisen Domes (Honeybee rover + Lunar-VISE)
2031 MMX returns Phobos samples (PlanetVac P-Sampler) to Earth

Significance

PlanetVac is the clearest end-to-end FO success story for sample acquisition. The causal chain is unambiguous: 1. Honeybee developed PlanetVac concept under SBIR + Planetary Society funding 2. FO provided the only available test environment (Masten VTVL rocket) to validate in a realistic landing scenario 3. FO data qualified PlanetVac for CLPS lunar payload selection 4. PlanetVac successfully operated on the Moon (March 2025) 5. The same technology is flying to Phobos (2026)

Comparison to NDL: NDL is the strongest FO causal argument (it literally saved IM-1). PlanetVac is the strongest FO technology maturation story — it went from TRL 4 to lunar surface operation in 8 years, with FO providing the critical mid-TRL validation that ground testing couldn't replicate.

Masten irony: Masten Space Systems provided the Xombie test vehicle for both PlanetVac flights. Masten went bankrupt in 2022 and was acquired by Astrobotic for $4.5M. But the technology Masten helped validate — PlanetVac — flew to the Moon on a different CLPS lander (Blue Ghost) while Masten's own lunar mission was cancelled.

Verification

  • Sample size: 5 FO projects + $193M+ NASA contracts + 53+ TechPort projects
  • Query: techport_get_project batch [89413, 106599, 145004, 106621, 106632]; techport_find_contacts "Kris Zacny"; usaspending_search_awards Honeybee Robotics NASA; web search PlanetVac Blue Ghost results, JAXA MMX P-Sampler
  • Counter-query: Would PlanetVac have reached the Moon without FO flights? The SBIR work was lab-only; FO provided the only realistic landing-environment test. Confidence high that FO was necessary for CLPS selection.
  • Confidence: Confirmed — lunar landing success + JAXA delivery are public record

Cross-References