NASA SBIR 2005 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Honeybee Robotics Ltd.
460 W 34th Street
New York ,NY 10001 - 2320
(212) 966 - 0661

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Jason   Herman
Herman@HoneybeeRobotics.com
460 W 34th Street
New York, NY  10001 -2320
(646) 459 - 7819

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
Dust, especially lunar dust, has been identified as a significant and present challenge in future exploration missions. In addition to posing contamination and health risks for human explorers, the interlocking, angular nature of lunar dust and its broad grain size distribution make it particularly detrimental to mechanisms with which it may come into contact. All Apollo lunar missions experienced some degree of equipment failure due to dust, and it appears that dust accumulation on exposed material is unavoidable and difficult to reverse. However, experience also indicates that material selection, location, and crew action can mitigate the detrimental effects of dust. It remains the case that significant development is called for in the area of devices and structures that tolerate or mitigate the presence of lunar dust. Thus, Honeybee Robotics proposes to develop both active and passive methods for tolerating and mitigating dust accumulation on reusable connection mechanism interfaces. Techniques such as baffles, brushes, and fluid-washing will be explored more thoroughly as they relate to mechanical connections. Dust-tolerant connection strategies will be an enabling step for much of the technology that Honeybee is currently developing for lunar drilling and sample and instrument manipulation in particular, and as a necessary precursor to interfaces for transferring electricity, fluids, and other utilities in general.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Dust tolerant interconnections will be key components to future exploration missions and would find extensive applications in systems designed to operate in the lunar and other dusty environments. Future mission scenarios involving erectable structures, diverse EVA-compliant tools, EVA-to-rover or EVA-to-robot interfaces, and other in-situ assembly or interconnection activities, will all call for such connections. Reliable dust-tolerant mechanisms and mitigation techniques will greatly increase the operational lifetime of mechanisms in situ on the Moon and Mars and will therefore help reduce mission costs and risk.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The connection methods developed in this effort will have application in the construction and military reconnaissance/surveillance fields, particularly in harsh and/or remote environments. Specific applications include reusable military camp equipment and structures, remotely operated vehicles and other equipment, and very deep drilling. The potential environments include deserts and other dry-climate locations, down-hole geothermal and oil wells, and various mines.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Erectable Human-Robotic Interfaces Modular Interconnects Suits Tools