About Us
Exploring rough terrains & lunar resources
Puli Space Technologies Ltd. is a space technology company based in Budapest, Hungary. It was founded in 2010 with the aim to become part of the fast growing private lunar industry. Puli Space Technologies develops a low cost, lightweight, planetary rover platform with unique mobility capabilities carrying payloads, as well as a neutron spectrometer instrument to explore lunar water resources, and support In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) activities, while able to survive the harsh environment on the Moon.
Our PLWS payloads onboard the IM-2 mission
Flying on Intuitive Machines' IM-2 lunar mission launched in February 2025, two of our NASA-awarded miniature neutron spectrometer, called Puli Lunar Water Snooper, will measure albedo neutron count rates, indicating presence of water ice in the South Pole region of the Moon. Mounted on the rocket-fueled drone Micro Nova Hopper, PLWS will collect first direct surface data ever from a permanently shadowed crater as well. The European Space Agency and Puli Space have made history by signing the first-ever exploration data buy agreement of a commercial deep space mission.
The Spacetime plaque
Our first payload was the Spacetime plaque in 2024, a Hungarian time capsule on Earth and in space at the same time. The Spacetime plaque was mounted onboard the Peregrine lunar lander of US-based company Astrobotic Inc., our partner since August 2016. Although it was not delivered to the Moon's surface, with the Spacetime plaque we have created an eternal memory for the Mighty Magyars, among others.
Spacetime plaque website
NASA prize winner payload: The PLWS
Puli Space won the 2nd prize of the "Honey, I Shrunk the NASA Payload, The Sequel" challenge of NASA JPL in 2022, with its innovative miniature lunar neutron spectrometer payload able to map water ice resources on the Moon. The Puli Lunar Water Snooper (PLWS) has been successfully designed, manufactured and tested in the framework of two consecutive challenges, during which NASA has funded the payload development with $225,000 USD in 2021. PLWS is capable of monitoring and characterizing neutron environment, identifying and measuring subsurface hydrogen content of the lunar soil, and so mapping an area for water deposits.
Moon & Mars Analog Field Tests with rovers
The team has gained valuable experience in Analog Planetary Research (APR) to support future human and robotic planetary exploration. With the terrestrial prototypes of the Puli rover, the Mission Control team had several successful field tests on Moon and Mars analog terrains, often cooperating with analog astronauts (Mission Maunacast at PISCES, Mauna Kea, Hawaii; MARS2013 mission in the Sahara, Morocco; and AMADEE-15 expedition in the Alps, Austria).
Google Lunar XPRIZE challenge
Team Puli had been an official contestant of the Google Lunar XPRIZE (GLXP) challenge since 2010. GLXP called for privately funded teams to be the first to land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit HD videos and images back to Earth. Although the contest ended without any winner in 2018, Puli Space Technologies continues its mission to send a lunar rover and payloads to the Moon.