It’s a classic moon-watching moment.
Message from NASA Last week: “NASA ends VIPER project, continues exploring the moon.”
The space agency’s Viper Arctic Exploration Rover (VIPER) project has undergone a comprehensive internal review. NASA found price shocks, launch delays, and the risk of rising costs in the future—reasons to “cancel” the lunar ice-hunting mission.
Some disassembly required.
At this stage timeNASA has invested $450 million in the VIPER program.
NASA said it plans to disassemble and reuse VIPER’s instruments and components on future moon missions.
Prior to the dismantling, NASA announced that it was open to expressions of interest from U.S. industry and international partners to use the existing VIPER system at no cost to the government.
NASA said the VIPER project will end in an orderly fashion by spring 2025.
Related: NASA Cancels $450 Million VIPER Lunar Rover Project Due to Budget Concerns
dead meat, dead weight
As part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) public-private partnership, VIPER was scheduled to head to Land Departure via Astrobotic Griffin lunar lander.
But Astrobotic is trying to overcome its own problems that have pushed Griffin’s flight readiness back to September 2025.
NASA said the landing without the Viper on board “will provide a demonstration of the Griffin spacecraft and its engines.” In the absence of the Viper, a “mass simulator” will be used to simulate the weight of NASA’s missing spacecraft.
A rough start to smooth sailing
At first, things weren’t easy for Astrobotic.
In January of this year, the Astrobotic Peregrine Mission One was launched to the moon Failed due to propulsion failure in space.
Astrobotic said it will soon begin an investigation into why the private company’s first lunar lander failed.
“Continuing the VIPER program would result in cost increases that threaten to cancel or disrupt other CLPS missions,” according to the space agency. statement “NASA has notified Congress of the agency’s intent,” he explains.
“This is a great opportunity for us to continue working together,” Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in a statement.
The agency is planning a series of missions to search for ice and other resources on the moon over the next five years.
relinquish leadership
“The VIPER spacecraft is 100 percent built and has completed some of its testing,” said Clive Neal, a leading lunar scientist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. “It’s ready to go, and NASA is giving up a very capable spacecraft and giving up leadership in resource exploration.”
“It’s a dark day for lunar science and exploration and perhaps Artemis Program“I’m still in shock at the reasons used to justify the cancellation of the VIPER project,” Neil told Space.com.
Norbert Schorghofer, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, focuses on studying water ice in the Moon’s polar regions.
Schurgöfer describes determining the abundance and distribution of water ice in the lunar polar regions as a “scientific and exploration priority.”
“The cancellation of VIPER is a huge loss for science,” Schurgover told Space.com. “There is no other U.S. robotic mission to the Moon in the next three years that has the capabilities needed. What is needed is mobility and a way to explore the interior of the Earth, not just the surface.”
The basic truth
The real search for lunar water ice will likely come from the ongoing Lunar Polar Exploration Project (LUPEX) with India, which is expected to launch in 2025, Schorgofer added. Observation equipment from NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will also be available in 2025. European Space Agency The ESA will also be installed on the LUPEX vehicle.
The required investigation into lunar water ice could possibly be carried out by China’s Chang’e-7 robotic lander in 2026, Schorghofer said.
“A manned mission to the South Pole might achieve this goal, but who can say if it will fly as planned?” Schurghofer said.
“If we are serious about finding ice on the Moon, we also need a mission that can explore the large, cold, permanently dark craters that even the VIPER spacecraft and [NASA’s crewed] “Artemis 3 will not be able to reach that goal. It looks like that goal will be further in the future,” Schurghofer said.
devastating news
Benjamin Greenhagen, head of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG), said the intended termination of the VIPER program is devastating news.
Since 2004, LEAG has supported NASA in providing analysis of scientific, technical, commercial, and operational issues in support of lunar exploration goals.
“The LEAG community has long supported the VIPER and Resource Prospector programs before this,” Greenhagen advised his fellow lunar explorers via the Lunar-L website. “We believe in this mission and the unique value it brings to lunar exploration that would be lost if VIPER did not take off.”
Unconfirmed status
Beyond the hardware, Greenhagen said, “The VIPER project is made up of people, and there should be great concern for the engineers and scientists working to test and launch the completed vehicle in this uncertain situation. Please keep the VIPER team in mind.”
“LEAG will be working to get this message out to NASA in the coming weeks and I anticipate there will be other organized efforts at the individual and community level as well,” Greenhagen posted.
One of these measures has already begun to be implemented.
In light of the news of NASA’s decision to cancel the VIPER mission, space The scientists have prepared a letter of support, labeled “sign on the dotted line,” to be sent to members of the U.S. Congress urging them to reconsider the decision.
Opposition to the termination of NASA
In an open letter to Congress, the statement asked lawmakers to reject NASA’s cancellation of the VIPER mission to the moon.
The open letter has already received more than 140 signatures from more than 24 states in the United States. Plans are underway to directly reach out to the House and Senate committees addressed in the letter, asking them to oppose NASA’s termination of the VIPER program.
“We are deeply concerned by NASA’s shocking announcement on July 17 that it intends to terminate the VIPER lunar lander mission,” the letter reads. “The VIPER lander was intended to be a pioneering American project and NASA’s first mission to determine the origin and distribution of water ice on and beneath the Moon, a key step in enabling human exploration…”
unprecedented, indefensible
The open letter notes that the decision to cancel the mission “was made by NASA without giving the VIPER team or the broader lunar exploration community an opportunity to propose cost-saving solutions or alternatives to dismantling or scrapping the vehicle.”
The letter noted that the VIPER vehicle has already been fully built and is scheduled to undergo final testing in the coming months before launch in 2024 and 2025.
“The decision to cancel the project at this stage, after spending $450 million, is unprecedented and indefensible,” the letter said.
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