Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Lights out for NASA’s VIPER ice-hound?
Image credit: NASA

That recent tough call by NASA to cancel the space agency’s VIPER south pole Moon rover mission continues to stir up lunar exploration supporters.

NASA’s pronouncement on July 17 to kill the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) project has irked several thousand (4,000+ signatures and counting) advocates for the undertaking, with people signing an open letter to Congress, requesting lawmakers to “refuse to authorize” the NASA verdict.

Recent photo shows engineers testing the VIPER rover’s wheel movement and rotation in a clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Image credit: NASA/Helen Arase Vargas

VIPER status

Last week, during the NASA Exploration Science Forum staged by NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), a VIPER status report was given.

Anthony Colaprete, lead VIPER scientist, reported the rover last week completed acoustic testing, marking the completion of launch environmental testing. 

There’s a number of post-acoustic tests and baselining for thermal vacuum (TVAC) testing which completes the VIPER environmental test campaign, Colaprete reported. All rover elements have already been through TVAC testing at the component level so as to minimize risk of issues at the integrated system level testing, he added.

Artwork depicts NASA’s VIPER, on the prowl for water and other resources.
Image credit: NASA Ames/Daniel Rutter

So what now?

There appears to be broad agreement on seeking a constructive route forward for the rover and its team.

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 area 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

Open letter…still open for signatures

“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.

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.

Similar in size to a golf cart, VIPER weighs 992 pounds (450 kilograms). A distance on the Moon goal for VIPER was 12 miles (20 kilometers), carrying 3 spectrometers and a 3.28-foot (1-meter) drill.

Meanwhile, the open letter 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/

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