On Wednesday, NASA terminated the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) project due to spiralling costs and repeated delays. The ejected VIPER would have scouted the lunar South Pole for water ice and other resources.

While it was to have launched at the end of 2023, in 2022, NASA moved the launch date to late 2024 to allow for more Astrobotic lander testing. Subsequent slippages and supply chain issues have delayed VIPER’s readiness until September 2025. These delays and rising costs with another crashing deflationary bubble, and the space agency has determined that it can’t carry on with the VIPER development. NASA has informed Congress of its intentions, and is looking for other ways of accomplishing the science mission’s objectives.

‘It’s a disappointment, but space is known for its complexities and challenges,’ Nicolas Fox, associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, added. ‘The Moon is there for us to explore. VIPER and the Moon will share the lessons learned and technologies that will form the basis for our continued sustainable missions in the future.’

VIPER’s hardware and instruments will soon be leverageable, as a consequence of the agency’s recent decision to cancel VIPER. NASA has invited the Space industry in the United States (and internationally) to take advantage of the existing parts and payloads of the VIPER system to save money on other projects.

Astrobotic (the company developing the Griffin lander, which was to carry VIPER to the Moon) is still moving forward with its plans – the Griffin will now go with its payload as a flight demonstration of its capabilities, and will prepare it for upcoming missions to the Moon.

NASA also has other approaches for meeting the VIPER objectives in mind. Its Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1), a future CLPS mission currently scheduled to fly in late 2024, will deploy a drill and mass spectrometer to hunt for water ice at the lunar South Pole. Meanwhile, future crewed missions, which will include versions of the previously approved Lunar Terrain Vehicle, will hopefully enable mobile resource observations, and astronauts could use it to bring samples from permanently shadowed regions.

Despite this, NASA’s exploration of the Moon and its mysteries continues apace. The Moon is now better understood than ever before thanks to the use of astronauts and advanced robotics, as well as international collaborations.

©️ The Rocky Mountain Dispatch LLC. 2024