By 
September 7th, 2024
Wait-a-Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
In a wait-a-minute moment, U.S. lawmakers are probing NASA leadership regarding the space agency’s cancellation of the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) project.
On July 17, 2024, NASA announced its decision to cancel the VIPER lunar craft.
Artwork depicts NASA’s VIPER, on the prowl for water and other resources.
Image credit: NASA Ames/Daniel Rutter
In a September 6 letter to NASA chief, Bill Nelson, science committee leaders have requested the space agency to provide detailed cost and schedule information regarding NASA’s proposed termination of VIPER.
Also requested is information regarding alternative options for the rover going forward, “including the option of proceeding with the launch and landing of VIPER on the Moon,” the letter states.
Investments made in VIPER
“We understand that the fiscal environment for NASA is challenging and that NASA must make difficult decisions when programs are significantly over budget and behind schedule,” the letter to NASA states.
The VIPER rover heading into the Thermal Vacuum (TVAC) Chamber for testing.
Image credit: Daniel Andrews/LinkedIn
“Given the investments made on VIPER to date, the status of the assembled and integrated rover, and the national importance of our civil and commercial lunar exploration activities, it is imperative that Congress fully evaluate NASA’s proposed decision to terminate VIPER,” the letter adds.
The full letter can be found here at:
Vacuum chamber
In the interim, VIPER recently entered thermal vacuum chamber testing to be completed by October.
The NASA decision to cancel the VIPER south pole Moon rover also stirred up lunar exploration advocates, prompting an open letter campaign to Congress requesting lawmakers to “refuse to authorize” the NASA verdict.
Lights out for NASA’s VIPER ice-hound?
Image credit: NASA
“The decision to cancel the mission was taken by NASA without giving the wider VIPER team or lunar exploration community an opportunity to propose cost-saving solutions or alternatives to the dismemberment or scrapping of the rover,” the open letter explains.
On ice
The south pole machinery was dedicated to — as NASA’s first mobile robotic mission to the Moon, directly analyze ice on the surface and subsurface of the Moon at varying depths and temperature conditions within four main soil environments.
VIPER-supplied data was slated to be used to create resource maps, helping scientists determine the location and concentration of ice on the Moon and the forms it’s in, such as ice crystals or molecules chemically bound to other materials.
A close-up view of the areas that were to be explored by VIPER, showing a nominal traverse route and highlighting permanently shadowed regions that may contain water ice and other volatiles.
Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/Ernie Wright
VIPER’s projected landing site: the Nobile Region of the Moon’s south pole.
The rover is under the wing of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) and was built to scout about on the Moon for 100 Earth days, covering 3 cycles of lunar day and night.
Go to the NASA VIPER cancellation statement at:
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-ends-viper-project-continues-moon-exploration/
The open letter to Congress can be viewed at:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeIUzsdEiT8cbt7YqYE1RdctvtMaflyh3bc2M9HnH0C0Wpzww/viewform
Go to my earlier story — “VIPER Bite Marks: NASA Moons a Lunar Rover” — at:
https://www.leonarddavid.com/viper-bite-marks-nasa-moons-a-lunar-rover/
Wait-a-Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
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