Photos from the Chinese magazine “China Space News” show the assembled lander and rover units undergoing inspections and then being lowered into a thermal vacuum chamber for environmental testing, in preparation for the planned launch in December 2013.

One of the driving forces behind Puli Space is creativity. Although we mostly depend on engineering and scientific creativity to get to the Moon, one of our fans has proven that expertise in artisanship has a place around the Puli too.

Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon.com, is one the dotcom-billionaires who went on to become space entrepreneurs. He leads the notoriously secretive commercial spaceflight company, Blue Origin. A year ago, he announced that his team of sea experts successfully located relics of the the Apollo-era: the F-1 engines of the Saturn-V rockets at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean and that he was going to go after them. A year later, he fulfilled his promise.

A gas generator in front, a thrust chamber at the back.

Although the Puli rover didn't reach the southern camp of the MARS2013, last week was far from boring. We completed three successful test runs at the northern camp, one of which was a joint mission with the Polish Magma White rover. The two rovers danced around each other for hours – for the equal delight of the controllers at home and the field crew in Morocco.

The first Martian week of the Puli ended with successful checkouts, the second started with the first full-scale runs. Although we did cover considerable distance, our efforts were hindered by  communication problems at the field. Meanwhile, the twin rover visited the World ATM (Air Traffic Management) Congress in Madrid, as a guest of our newest silver sponsor, HungaroControl.

Our I2 rover in the Saharan desert. Photo: (c) Katja Zanella-Kux (ÖWF)