Citing development delays and expense overruns, NASA has canceled a robotic lunar rover project that was intended to explore for ice at the moon’s south pole.
On July 17, NASA declared that the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rove (VIPER) mission would no longer be developed. In order to gain a better understanding of the amount and type of water ice present on the moon, the rover—which was scheduled to be launched atop a commercial lander named Griffin from Astrobotic Technology—would have investigated terrain that included areas that were constantly shadowed.
Agency representatives stated at a briefing to announce the cancellation that VIPER expenses had increased by over 30%, prompting an agency review of the termination. In 2021, NASA confirmed VIPER, spending $433.5 million in the process. NASA’s Science Mission Directorate’s Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, stated that the most recent estimate was $609.6 million, with a launch anticipated in September 2025.
NASA associate administrator for science Nicky Fox stated, “In this case, the projected remaining expenses for VIPER would have resulted in either having to cancel or disrupt many other missions in our Commercial Lunar Payload Services line.” “Therefore, we have made the decision to forgo this particular mission.”
According to Kearns, VIPER experienced a number of supply chain problems that caused deliveries of important, unidentified components that date back to the pandemic to be delayed. He claimed that “the delays occurred over and over for several key components,” adding that it was more difficult for the mission to plan around a series of little delays than a single, significant one.
This made the rover’s construction more difficult. According to him, it is around the size of a compact automobile and is constructed from the inside out. “Many of the components that were delayed were actually in the inner section of VIPER, so as the components were delayed, it started forcing the VIPER team to delay the assembly and delay the integration and initial testing.”
Despite being finished, the rover is only now beginning its environmental tests. The updated budget and timeline, according to Kearns, were predicated on VIPER passing the environmental testing with flying colors. “I will tell you that in general, spacecraft development system-level environmental testing does uncover problems that do need to be corrected, which would take more time and money.”
NASA will save at least $84 million if VIPER is canceled now. If the launch of VIPER were to be delayed past November 2025, he said, it would mean having to wait nine to twelve months for the proper lighting conditions to return to the landing spot in the polar zone.
Kearns and Fox state that other missions, such orbiters and landers, will accomplish a significant amount of the science that VIPER would have undertaken.However, until NASA’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle—a rover for crewed Artemis missions that can also be teleoperated—is deployed later this decade, the mobility that VIPER would have offered might not be available.
In order to use its instruments and other parts, NASA intends to deconstruct VIPER. But first, NASA will take into account offers from domestic businesses and foreign allies to independently fly VIPER at no expense to the federal government. NASA must receive proposals by August 1.
Griffin’s mission should be revised
Aside from its own development issues, VIPER also had to contend with delays from Griffin, the lander built by Astrobotic that was supposed to send the rover to the moon as part of a $322 million CLPS task order. Griffin is currently anticipated to be prepared for the trip, according to NASA, no earlier than September 2025.
NASA will keep the Griffin task order even with the cancellation of VIPER. Rather than using a rover, the mission will instead serve as a technological demonstrator, testing Griffin’s capacity to land heavy payloads by using a mass simulator.
According to Kearns, NASA thought about transporting science payloads instead, but the lander was made to carry a rover, therefore it lacked the accommodations and capabilities needed for payloads, including electricity and communications.
Regarding possible adjustments to accommodate payloads, he stated, “We believe that if we were to ask Astrobotic to make changes like that, it would further delay their schedule.”“It would lead to more cost for the government. It would lead to a delay of the demonstration of a successful south pole
landing by the large Griffin lander, which we are very interested in seeing.”
It will also be open to Astrobotic to launch their own commercial payloads. In an interview, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton stated that the business is thinking of testing its LunaGrid power generation service on Griffin. “We do want to fly quickly, but we also want to make a mission that is more impactful than just the lander itself.”
He stated that even without VIPER, Griffin will still land in the moon’s south polar area, albeit possibly not at the location NASA chose for VIPER. It will rely on any additional payloads it agrees to carry with the lander; in order to lower mission risk, it may choose to land at a safer location.
Although they could not provide further details, Kearns and Thornton both stated that the agency only recently notified the corporation of the decision. According to an industry insider, NASA notified Astrobotic of the decision only one day prior to its official announcement.
He made reference to the January launch of Astrobotic’s first lunar lander, Peregrine, which was unable to attempt a lunar landing due to a fuel leak. “This has been certainly a year of tumult and challenge for Astrobotic as a company,” he added. “certainly another punch to the gut here, but we’ll roll with it.” the VIPER cancellation said.
Kearns noted the work NASA sponsored for the business to conduct further propulsion system tests and stated that NASA thought Griffin would be able to land safely on the moon with or without VIPER on board. “We do have confidence in them to go out and attempt this landing, or we wouldn’t be continuing to work with them.”
“I’m an eternal optimist. You kind of have to be in the space industry,” Thornton added. “I’m excited about what we can turn this into.”NASA terminates the lunar rover VIPER