A tremendous amount has happened during the past year. In strong competition, Hydromars was selected as one of two companies to have test equipment launched with SpaceX. The competition was organized by the European Space Agency, ESA. We completed our test equipment in record time and, following third-party testing, were able to demonstrate that we met all the rigorous requirements for participating in a test in space.
By now, everyone has probably heard that our equipment crashed into the Pacific Ocean — and disappeared for good.
We have drawn one clear conclusion from this. However strong our technology may be, we cannot, on our own, develop equipment for space applications. In reality, this is a field where only billionaires and governments have the financial capacity required — Musk, Bezos, Branson, and state-backed space programs.
In different ways, this led to our highly capable CEO, Shorena Tsindeliani, leaving the company, as well as our three technicians.
Immediately after the crash, we began looking for larger partners. We had four American companies interested, despite the crash — or perhaps partly because of the attention the crash gave us. These were companies investing in the development of space stations and habitats. However, none of them had expertise in water. Their general attitude was more or less that “someone will be able to fix the water issue when the time comes.”
But the truth is that there is still not a single credible proposal for how to achieve a closed water system in space. That was precisely why ESA selected us. We were chosen because we have demonstrably developed our own unique technology, with the potential to form the basis of a fully closed system. We were able to make this credible because, in other contexts, we have shown that we can purify water better than any other existing technology. It is also easier for us to manage the concentrate from the purification process and recover it in different ways through Zero Liquid Discharge. So far, no one has challenged our slogan:
“You cannot go to Mars without Hydromars!”
After the crash, we negotiated for six months with a leading Japanese company. It would have been an ideal partner, but we did not reach an agreement. We wanted them to invest, while they wanted a technical collaboration. We therefore paused the discussions.
During 2026, we will focus on the European companies Airbus and Thales, both of which have strong space programs. We have a confidentiality agreement with Airbus. We met Thales for the first time at a conference in October 2025, where we found that Hydromars’ technology aligns well with the goals Thales had set for the recovery of urine and nutrients.
We already have good relations with Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR, and our sister companies have collaborated with imec for almost ten years.
Our strategic focus is therefore now on building a European collaboration involving Airbus, Thales, ESA, imec, and DLR.
