Cable Guard

This aluminum cable guard was created by Honeybee Robotics, a NASA-approved flight hardware supplier with experience producing flexible automation technologies, spacecraft components, and robotic systems and subsystems for the aerospace industry. The company was headquartered in New York City on September 11, 2001, with many of its staff working at a facility on Elizabeth Street, close enough to the World Trade Center to witness the attacks and the collapse of the Twin Towers. Searching for a way to memorialize those killed and acknowledge those who responded to the disaster, Honeybee Robotics requested and received metal wreckage from the Twin Towers, which they used to create cable guards for two exploratory Mars Rovers launched by NASA in 2003. In keeping with their protocols and industry practice for space-bound equipment, Honeybee fabricated one cable guard for use on each Rover, and duplicates that were to serve as models for problem-solving use on Earth. Honeybee eventually offered one of these “duplicate” guards to the 9/11 Museum.