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Honeybee Robotics begins asteroid mining feasibility study

Robotic Asteroid Prospector proposal will analyze viability of harvesting resources from near-Earth objects

Honeybee Robotics today announced it has begun developing a feasibility study into the viability of mining materials from near-Earth objects (NEOs). The four-member Robotic Asteroid Prospector project team, led by Dr. Marc M. Cohen, will explore parameters important to harvesting resources from asteroids and other space objects, including the kinds of mission and spacecraft needed, applicable mining technology, and whether such an undertaking could be technologically and financially viable.

Honeybee Vice President and Director of Exploration Technology Kris Zacny is providing Honeybee’s expertise in mining, drilling, anchoring, sample acquisition, and processing to the Robotic Asteroid Prospector team. Zacny and Honeybee have an extensive history of automated mining and sample acquisition technologies, including both surface and “stand-off” approaches for harvesting materials.

“For any mission to mine an asteroid or other near-Earth object, a big part of the challenge is physically mining or collecting materials in the extreme and unstructured environment of space,” said Zacny. “Based on the resources NEOs contain, there is great potential to mine and return valuable materials, or apply them to in-situ resource utilization. However, the physical and practical challenges are significant. I am looking forward to working with the team, and contributing the knowledge Honeybee has gained over the past two decades of developing and testing automated sample collection systems.”

The project is funded as part of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Program.