First time in the history of Hungarian space exploration: Puli ‘water snooper’ operates for 38 mins on Moon

The Puli Lunar Water Snooper (PLWS), manufactured by Hungarian Puli Space Technologies, operated for 38 minutes on the Moon, sending data to Earth amid frigid conditions, the manufacturer said late on Monday.

The Athena moon lander landed on the Moon on March 6, 6.32 CET, the second moon mission of Houston-based Innovative Machines (IM-2). Athena landed on its side but operated for some 12 hours afterwards, and PLWS was operational for 38 minutes in temperatures around -55 degrees Celsius, Puli Space Technologies said.

The statement said Puli and IM’s cooperation would be the first attempt to map water-based ice on the Moon’s surface. The 400g NASA Prize-winning machine was mounted on a unique drone with an autonomous rocket drive.

The statement cited Puli founder Tibor Pacher as saying:

“While the second moon mission of Innovative Machines did not succeed as planned … we are proud that our water snooper operated in the extreme cold for nearly 40 minutes and kept sending data. Although we didn’t manage to carry out all necessary tests, our little machine has made history nonetheless, and we are already preparing for our next Moon mission.”