Honeybee Robotics to Develop LUNARSABER for DARPA’s LunA-10 Program

Altadena, Calif. – December 5, 2023 – Honeybee Robotics has been selected for DARPA’s 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study to develop and integrate its technology LUNARSABER (Lunar Utility Navigation with Advanced Remote Sensing and Autonomous Beaming for Energy Redistribution).

Proposed at over 100 meters tall, Honeybee’s LUNARSABER is a deployable structure that integrates solar power, power storage and transfer, communications, mesh network, PNT (Position, Navigation, and Timing), and surveillance into a single infrastructure. The deployable mast uses the Honeybee technology DIABLO (Deployable Interlocking Actuated Bands for Linear Operations), making it highly versatile and customizable to customer or mission requirements.

The infrastructure would literally shine light on new possibilities, increasing operating hours for human and robotic missions on the Moon. “LUNARSABER can turn night into day in the deepest craters on the Moon,” says Kris Zacny, VP of Exploration Systems at Honeybee Robotics. “It is truly a game-changing system that will pave the way for a lunar economy.”

LUNARSABER can host payloads at the base of the system for other commercial services to interface with the system, or they can be mounted at the top of the mast to significantly increase their service range. “We’re looking forward to partnerships with both commercial and non-commercial customers to host payload and services that will help accelerate lunar infrastructure,” says Vishnu Sanigepalli, Principal Investigator of LUNARSABER on LunA-10.

The successful establishment and operation of LunA-10 relies on stand-alone systems and their integration into the overall architecture’s resources and capabilities. As Honeybee’s latest in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) enabling technology, LUNARSABER will serve as an optimal and highly adaptable utility solution, laying the groundwork for a thriving lunar economy.

About Honeybee Robotics

Honeybee Robotics builds robotic systems and mechanisms to unlock the potential of space. Honeybee’s 400 employees cover two business units: Motion Control and Exploration Systems. Motion Control provides unique spacecraft solutions including Solar Array Drives, Actuators, and Motor Controllers. Exploration Systems’ three pillars: Explore, Mine the Sky, and Touch Life, are focused on providing space infrastructure, resources, and technologies to find and support life in the Solar System. Since 1983, we have launched thousands of products to space and completed hundreds of advanced projects for NASA, the US Department of Defense, academia, and others to explore the Moon, Titan, Phobos, and more.