Stephen Gorevan

Honeybee Robotics approach to technology development and infusion

Honeybee Robotics has benefited from multiple commercialization successes associated with the federal SBIR program1 2. In this paper, we will present a number of case studies on successful technology development and infusion, including development of 2003 Mars Exploration Rover Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT), 2007 NASA Mars Phoenix Lander Icy Soil Acquisition Deice (ISAD), 2011 Mars Science Laboratory Rover Sample manipulation System (SMS) and excavation systems for NASA Lunar Surface Systems and DoD. The paper addresses the commercial benefits of each of the technologies, and also describes how we identified opportunities in other federal organizations and commercial partners and what steps were required to successfully spin it off into other markets. We also describe a step-by-step approach to technology developed at Honeybee Robotics and describe the path required for infusing technology into space missions or different applications.

The champollion cometary molecular analysis experiment

Abstract The Chemical Analysis of Released Gas Experiment (CHARGE), is one of several investigations selected for the Champollion New Millennium DS4 Mission. CHARGE is presently being designed to carry out a detailed molecular and isotopic analysis of material collected for the surface and several centimeters below the surface of comet Tempel I. The highest priority scientific issues addressed by this investigation include: the chemical conditions present in the region of cometary formation; the chemical changes during cometary formation and over the lifetime of the comet; the relationship of comets to other primitive and more evolved bodies in the solar system and to the parent interstellar cloud; the contribution of cometary material to the atmospheres and oceans of planets; and the nature of the mixture of ices and dust grains which give rise to the coma and extended sources of gas as a comet approaches perihelion. CHARGE will be designed to thermally process samples of solid phase material from near the ambient temperature to approximately 900 K. Gases evolved from the frozen ices will be continuously analyzed as a function of sample temperature by a quadrupole mass spectrometer with a mass range of 2 to 300 amu. A broad range of major and trace species, both organic and inorganic, from the gases evolved from the solid samples will undergo both chemical and cold trapping for subsequent analysis by gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS) analysis. CHARGE technology heritage includes the Galileo Probe Mass Spectrometer (Niemann et al., 1996) that successfully measured the composition of Jupiters atmosphere in December of 1995. The landed portion of the mission will enable analysis of subsurface materials and allow identification of organic species present at sub-parts per million mole-fraction in the nucleus. Prior to the landed operations, CHARGE will carry out measurements from orbit for a period of several weeks.