Named after a Hungarian breed of dog, the Puli rover is a
low-cost platform designed to carry different payloads, including the ice water
snooper, which won the 2020 “Honey, I Shrunk the NASA Payload” challenge, a
competition organised by the U.S. space agency.
Weighing less than 400 grammes (14 oz), its purpose is to
probe for water ice by identifying and mapping the subsurface hydrogen content
of the lunar soil.
“It looks for background radiation and then the background
radiation induces a secondary radiation coming out of the Moon,” said Matyas
Hazadi, head of technical engineering at Budapest-based Puli Space Technologies
Ltd, which developed both it and the rover.
“It is comparing the different energy of the background
radiation spectrum to find water.”
NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy
(SOFIA) last year confirmed the existence of water – and hence a potential
source of rocket fuel, rehydration and oxygen – on the Moon for the first time.
The rover has four independently steerable wheels formed of
foot-like rubberised spokes and can scale 40-45 degrees slopes, and its
prototypes have been tested on lunar-like terrain in Hawaii and Morocco.
Backed by NASA development funds, the firm expects it to be
ready to deploy on a lunar mission from next year.
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