NASA cans lunar rover after spending $450mn building it

NASA cans lunar rover after spending $450mn building it
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jul 18, 2024

Following a comprehensive internal review, NASA announced Wednesday its intent to discontinue development of its VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) project.

NASA cited rising costs, delays in the launch schedule, and the risks of further cost growth as reasons for halting the mission. The rover was initially set to launch in late 2023, but in 2022, NASA requested a delay to late 2024 to allow more time for preflight testing of the Astrobotic lander.

Subsequent schedule and supply chain delays pushed VIPER's readiness date to September 2025, with its CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) launch aboard Astrobotic's Griffin lander delayed to a similar timeframe. Continuing VIPER would have increased costs, potentially disrupting other CLPS missions. NASA has informed Congress of its decision.

"We are committed to studying and exploring the Moon for the benefit of humanity through the CLPS program," said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The agency has an array of missions planned to look for ice and other resources on the Moon over the next five years. Our path forward will make maximum use of the technology and work that went into VIPER, while preserving critical funds to support our robust lunar portfolio."

NASA plans to disassemble and reuse VIPER's instruments and components for future Moon missions. Before disassembly, NASA will consider interest from U.S. industry and international partners for using the existing VIPER rover system at no cost to the government, with expressions of interest due by Thursday, Aug. 1. Interested parties should contact [email protected] after 10 a.m. EDT on Thursday, July 18. The project will conduct an orderly closeout through spring 2025.

Astrobotic will continue its Griffin Mission One under its contract with NASA, aiming for a launch no earlier than fall 2025. The landing without VIPER will demonstrate the Griffin lander and its engines.

NASA will seek alternative methods to achieve many of VIPER's goals, including verifying the presence of ice at the lunar South Pole. A future CLPS delivery, the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1), scheduled to land at the South Pole in late 2024, will search for water ice and conduct a resource utilization demonstration using a drill and mass spectrometer to measure the volatile content of subsurface materials.

Additionally, future instruments as part of NASA's crewed missions, such as the Lunar Terrain Vehicle, will enable mobile observations of volatiles across the south polar region and provide astronauts access to the Moon's permanently shadowed regions for sample return missions. The agency will also use copies of three of VIPER's four instruments for future Moon landings on separate flights.

The VIPER rover was designed to search the Moon for ice and other potential resources, supporting NASA's commitment to study the Moon and help unravel the mysteries of our solar system. Through NASA's lunar initiatives, including Artemis human missions and CLPS, NASA is exploring more of the Moon than ever before with highly trained astronauts, advanced robotics, U.S. commercial providers, and international partners.