NASA seeking good home for VIPER Moon rover
After scrapping the lunar rover VIPER program last summer, NASA sought bids from private companies to take over the robot project. The space agency says it only has a few more weeks for companies to submit their ideas. Who will take ownership of the rover now?
Visualization of the Moon's phases in 2025
FILE: NASA visualization shows the Moon's phases in 2025 (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)
NASA is seeking a new owner for its Moon rover after canceling plans to send its robotic mission to the lunar surface in search of ice.
VIPER, which stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, was a payload part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program flying on a private company’s mission. The small rover was designed to look for water in the polar regions on the Moon. However, NASA management scrapped the mission last summer due to budgetary constraints and delays.
NASA’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) sits outside a testing chamber after completing its thermal vacuum testing in the fall of 2024.
(NASA/JSC David DeHoyos / NASA)
NASA management said these delays could have ripple effects, increasing costs and threatening other CLPS missions. The agency launched its third CLIPS mission in January, flying with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander to the Moon.
With a perfectly good robot ready to roll, NASA put out a request to U.S. private space companies for proposals to take over the mission in partnership with the space agency.
NASA said that under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, the space agency and its industry partner will contribute services, technology and hardware to the collaboration. The VIPER rover would be part of the agreement in "as-is" condition. Selected partners could not disassemble the rover and use it for parts.
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The company that takes over the mission would be responsible for launching and landing the rover.
NASA's Artemis lunar rover, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER)
(NASA)
Interested parties must submit their proposals by March 3. NASA expects to decide on the VIPER mission this summer.
Agency officials said NASA saved about $84 million on development and additional operational costs by not proceeding with the mission to the Moon alone.
VIPER was scheduled to be delivered to the surface of the Moon by Astrobotic’s Griffin lander. The space agency said it will still fly NASA science on the Astrobotic mission in 2025.