Robot maker · registered
Honeybee Robotics
Honeybee Robotics designs and builds robotic systems for extreme environments — planetary drills, pneumatic samplers, rovers, robotic arms and space-rated actuators — and has flown hardware on NASA missions since its first NASA contract in 1986. Its recent flight systems include the LISTER pneumatic heat-flow drill and Lunar PlanetVac sampler, both operated on the lunar surface during Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 (March 2025), and the TRIDENT ice-mining drill flown on NASA's PRIME-1 aboard Intuitive Machines' IM-2 lander. Acquired by Blue Origin in 2022, it operates as a distinct subsidiary with its own brand, president (Kiel Davis), ~340-person team, and Longmont, Colorado headquarters, selling to external customers including NASA, Firefly Aerospace, and DARPA.
Company overview
Identity and operating footprint
Robot models
Specifications remain vendor-claimed
Gruithuisen Domes rover
- Lunar rover to carry out ~14 days of payload operations at the Gruithuisen Domes after deploying from Firefly's Blue Ghost lander in 2028
A rover Honeybee is building under contract to Firefly Aerospace for Blue Ghost Mission 3, a NASA CLPS task order to explore the Gruithuisen Domes on the Moon's near side
Claim source
LISTER
- Pneumatic drill that measured lunar subsurface heat flow on Blue Ghost Mission 1
Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity, a gas-powered drill (developed with Texas Tech University) that probed the Moon's subsurface temperature and thermal conductivity during Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 surface operations in March 2025
Claim source
Lunar PlanetVac
- Pneumatic sampler that collected, transferred, and sorted lunar regolith using pressurized nitrogen gas
A lander-mounted pneumatic sample-acquisition system that demonstrated regolith collection and sorting on the lunar surface during Blue Ghost Mission 1 in March 2025
Claim source
LUNARSABER
- Deployable lunar tower over 100 meters tall integrating solar power, power storage/transfer, communications, mesh networking, PNT, and surveillance
Lunar Utility Navigation with Advanced Remote Sensing and Autonomous Beaming for Energy Redistribution, a self-deploying infrastructure concept developed under DARPA's 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) capability study
Claim source
TRIDENT
- Meter-class rotary-percussive drill for prospecting lunar water ice
The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain, a roughly one-meter drill built to excavate lunar soil from below the surface for volatile prospecting on NASA's PRIME-1 and VIPER missions
Claim source
Deployment log
Announced and cited only
Company timeline
Milestones and announcements
Source ledger
6 unique public sources