The Rewards of Perseverance

About this technology

Overview

With SBIR funding from JPL, Honeybee Robotics developed coring drill bits that can break off and retain rock samples. The bits are flying for the first time on Perseverance and are available to geologists on Earth. As Tempo Automation built a circuit board for a Perseverance camera system, the company added new inspections and documentation to its production process and developed a novel preproduction tool. All these now benefit Tempo’s customers. NASA funding, including JPL SBIR contracts for Mars exploration, helped Photon Systems make small, inexpensive spectrometers in the deep-UV range, where they’re so sensitive they can identify bacteria. They’re being used in pharmaceutical quality control, wastewater treatment, and more.