Geotechnical Systems
Honeybee Robotics Exploration Systems has developed a range of geotechnical tools for space applications. We continue to develop new tools to help our customer navigate the difficult and unknown terrains of our solar system. Our novel approaches enable us to reach once unobtainable areas with higher reliability.
An example of our geotechnical tools is the Stinger probe that we have been developing for NASA. Flawless operation of mobility systems, excavation, mining and In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) operations, regolith transport, and many other activities critically depend on knowledge of the geotechnical properties of the soil in a given area. To meet this need, Honeybee has developed the Stinger as a planetary geotechnical instrument. The design combines an Apollo-based penetrometer approach for measuring bearing strength with a Lunokhod approach for measuring shear strength. Earlier concepts of this are the PDCP, which was deployed on a NASA Ames K10 rover, and Bevameter, a handheld version of the tool.