Team Hungarobots from Sopron, Hungary, was found best by the jury in the 2012 Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO Mindstorms Challenge. The high school student team of five and the Puli affiliate team leader made an excellent video on the future of the equipment left on the lunar surface by previous Moon missions, and secured their first place by building a LEGO robot capable of completing a complex Moon mission simulation. As the grand prize, the team can enjoy a four day trip to Hawaii, and a guided tour to various NASA facilities.

This year was the third time time that Google together with LEGO, held the Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO Mindstorms Challenge (or Moonbots 2012 for short). The goal was to create a short film about fate of man made items on the Moon in the first phase of the competition, followed by the building of a LEGO robot, which is able to perform tasks in a simulated lunar environment. The competition was open for students under 18 years of age, and attracted 147 teams from 22 countries on 5 continents, including a group of students from Sopron, Hungary. The winning team, called ’Hungarobots’, is made up of five students of the Széchenyi István High School, namely: László Bodnár, Áron Németh, Botond Sléber, Bálint Soós, Norbert Wesely, and team leader Márton Deák, who doubles as a member of team Puli Space, official GLXP competitor.

Hungarobots already made a prominent appearance in the first round, by creating the competition's most popular video, which earned then place among the teams selected for the second phase.

The finals were followed by the jury via an online broadcast, which was streamed from the Futura center in the city of Mosonmagyaróvár for the Hungarian team. Hungarobots displayed an advanced LEGO robot, which was finished after weeks of preparation, and successfully completed its mission during the live performance. „It was a great challenge to take part as Hungarians in an international competition of such scale, four months of exhaustive preparation is behind us. We hope to raise some attention with our accomplishments” – said Norbert Wesely after the event.

Márton Deák, team leader, added: „ This is a prestigious international competition, where only the creativity of all the different teams mattered. MoonBots was won for the first time by a European – even Hungarian – team, which is a great accomplishment. The boys worked really hard for their success and showed that whatever might happen, Hungary can always count on brain power.”

The jury awarded the main prize of the competition - a four day trip to Hawaii and a guided tour to various NASA facilities - to the Hungarian team. The second and third place were taken by two US contestants, while a South African team finished fouth. Congratulations!