NASA ends VIPER project, continues moon exploration

Following a comprehensive internal review, NASA announced Wednesday that it plans to halt development of its Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) project.

NASA cited cost increases, launch date delays, and risks of future cost growth as reasons for abandoning the mission. The rover was originally scheduled to launch in late 2023, but in 2022, NASA requested a launch delay to late 2024 to allow more time for pre-flight testing of the Astrobotic lander. Since then, additional schedule and supply chain delays have pushed VIPER’s readiness date to September 2025, and independently, its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) launch aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin lander has also been delayed to a similar date. Continuing VIPER would result in cost increases that threaten to cancel or disrupt other CLPS missions. NASA has notified Congress of the agency’s intent.

“We are committed to studying and exploring the Moon for the benefit of humanity through the CLPS program,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The agency has planned a series of missions to search for ice and other resources on the Moon over the next five years. Our approach will be to maximize the technology and work accomplished through VIPER, while preserving critical funding to support our robust lunar portfolio.”

NASA plans to disassemble and reuse the VIPER rover instruments and components for future lunar missions. Prior to disassembly, NASA will consider expressions of interest from U.S. industry and international partners by Thursday, August 1, to use the existing VIPER rover system at no cost to the government. Interested parties should contact [email protected] after 10 a.m. ET on Thursday, July 18. The project will conclude in an orderly manner through spring 2025.

Astrobotic will continue its Griffin Mission One mission under its contract with NASA, with a planned launch no earlier than fall 2025. The VIPER-less landing will provide a flight demonstration of the Griffin lander and its engines.

NASA will explore alternative methods to achieve many of VIPER’s goals and verify 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 the fourth quarter of 2024, will search for water ice and conduct a resource utilization demonstration using a drill and a mass spectrometer to measure the volatile content of subsurface materials.

In addition, future instruments on NASA’s manned missions—such as the Lunar Terrain Vehicle—will enable mobile observations of volatiles in the South Pole region and allow astronauts to access regions of the Moon that are permanently in shadow for dedicated sample return campaigns. The agency will also use copies of three of VIPER’s four instruments for future lunar landings on separate flights.

The VIPER rover was designed to search for ice and other potential resources on the Moon, as part of NASA’s commitment to study the Moon and help unravel some of the greatest mysteries of our solar system. Through NASA’s lunar initiatives, including the crewed Artemis and CLPS missions, NASA is exploring more of the Moon than ever before using highly trained astronauts, advanced robotics, U.S. commercial contractors and international partners.

For more information about VIPER, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/viper

-END-

Karen Fox / Erin Morton
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600 / 202-805-9393
[email protected] / [email protected]