Puli Lunar Water Snooper (PLWS)
Puli Space Technologies
NASA-prize-winning miniature neutron spectrometer for mapping water ice in lunar south polar soil, flight-proven on Intuitive Machines' IM-2 mission in 2025.
Technical specifications
- Instrument type
- Miniature neutron spectrometer
- Measurement
- Albedo neutron count rates (subsurface hydrogen / water ice proxy)
- Mission heritage
- IM-2 (Intuitive Machines), launched February 2025, Micro Nova Hopper
- Location
- Lunar south pole, permanently shadowed region
- Award
- NASA JPL 'Honey, I Shrunk the NASA Payload, The Sequel' 2nd prize (2022)
- NASA funding
- $225,000 USD (two development phases)
- ESA agreement
- First-ever commercial deep space exploration data buy agreement
About
The Puli Lunar Water Snooper (PLWS) is a miniature neutron spectrometer payload developed by Puli Space Technologies to identify and map water ice deposits in the lunar south polar region. PLWS monitors and characterizes the neutron environment above the lunar surface, measuring albedo neutron count rates that indicate the presence of subsurface hydrogen — a proxy for water ice — to support In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) planning and future crewed missions.
PLWS won the 2nd prize of NASA JPL’s ‘Honey, I Shrunk the NASA Payload, The Sequel’ challenge in 2022 and received $225,000 in NASA funding across two consecutive challenge phases for design, manufacturing, and testing. Two PLWS instruments flew aboard Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission launched in February 2025, mounted on the Micro Nova Hopper rocket-powered drone to access a permanently shadowed crater at the lunar south pole — collecting the first direct surface neutron data ever from such a region. ESA signed the first-ever exploration data buy agreement for a commercial deep space mission in connection with the PLWS data acquisition.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.
