$450M setback: NASA cancels Moon rover designed for water hunt
NASA has officially called off its Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission, marking a significant blow to the agency's lunar exploration program. The decision was prompted by escalating costs and launch delays. The space agency had already invested an estimated $450 million in the development of the rover. VIPER, a wheeled vehicle roughly the size of a small car, was engineered to probe for water ice in shadowy areas near the Moon's south pole.
Mission delays and rising costs lead to cancellation
The VIPER mission was designed to offer insights into the permanently shadowed craters in the polar regions before NASA astronauts land there in future years. However, delays with both the VIPER rover and the privately built spacecraft that was supposed to land it on the Moon's surface led to uncertainty about the mission's timeline. The escalating costs threatened cuts or cancellations of other missions.
VIPER's original launch and subsequent delays
The VIPER rover was initially slated to launch at the end of 2023 aboard a lander provided by Astrobotic Technology. However, due to supply chain and scheduling issues, NASA delayed the launch to late 2024, which was later further postponed to September 2025. Despite the cancellation of VIPER, Astrobotic will maintain its contract with NASA to land its Griffin spacecraft on the Moon "no earlier than" fall 2025.
NASA to reuse VIPER's instruments for future missions
As per NASA, continuing the development of VIPER would lead to an increased cost that could potentially disrupt or cancel other missions under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Instead of allocating more resources to VIPER, NASA has decided to disassemble and repurpose the rover's instruments for future lunar missions. "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," said NASA's Nicola Fox.
NASA seeks interest for VIPER's existing system
Before disassembling VIPER, NASA will consider expressions of interest from the US industry and international partners by August 1 for the use of the existing rover system at no cost to the government, as stated on its website. The agency plans to pursue alternative methods to achieve many of VIPER's goals and confirm the presence of ice at the lunar south pole. This move signifies a shift in strategy toward more collaborative efforts in space exploration.
