Miles Jamison
Firefly Aerospace has partnered with Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, to build the lunar rover for an upcoming lunar mission.
The Texas-based end-to-end responsive space company said Monday it contracted Honeybee to provide the lunar rover needed to fulfill its $179 million NASA task order involving the delivery and operation of scientific instruments in the Gruithuisen Domes located on the moon’s near side.
Gruithuisen Domes Lunar Mission
The Honeybee rover will be deployed by Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander on the moon in 2028 to explore the Gruithuisen Domes. The mission will bring NASA instruments that will be critical in analyzing the subsurface composition of the unexplored area. The rover will carry NASA’s Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer suite. The Lunar-VISE comes with multiple instruments including dual cameras installed on the lander tasked with capturing detailed images of the landing site and the rover’s path. The rover will be equipped with an infrared multi-spectral camera system and a spectrometer for measuring gamma ray and neutron emissions.
During the exploration, the rover will traverse the southern boundary of the Gruithuisen Gamma Dome through a boulder field en route to the rim of an impact crater. It will then travel back to the lander to repeat the observations, particularly of boulder targets under varying solar illumination angles.
Paul Ebertz, senior vice president of in-space systems at Blue Origin, said, “With this rover, Honeybee Robotics builds on its legacy of advanced robotics and hardware designed for exploration throughout our solar system.”
Shea Ferring, chief technology officer at Firefly Aerospace, remarked, “The Firefly team has worked closely with Honeybee on two payloads – the Lunar PlanetVac and LISTER subsurface drill – that were successfully operated on our first Blue Ghost mission to the moon.”
