Honeybee Robotics PlanetVac on Masten Lander

Honeybee Robotics is advancing pneumatic planetary sampling through the development of its PlanetVac system. With the ability to integrate into a range of spacecraft architectures, PlanetVac offers a simple and cost-effective means of using suction to gather regolith from lunar, asteroid, and planetary surfaces for analysis. Facilitated by the Flight Opportunities program, testing aboard the Xodiac rocket from Masten Space Systems successfully validated that the system could fully operate at the foot of a spacecraft subjected to intense heat, vibration, and landing loads. The technology successfully withstood the environmental factors of landing and collected and retained a sample of 100 grams of simulated regolith. The successful testing led to PlanetVac’s selection as a payload aboard a lander vehicle being developed under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contracts, as well as infusion in the Martian Moons Exploration (MM1) mission from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, in which it will be used to collect regolith from the surface of Phobos.