''VIPER'' (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) is a
lunar rover
A lunar rover or Moon rover is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of the Moon. The Apollo Program's Lunar Roving Vehicle was driven on the Moon by members of three American crews, Apollo 15, 16, and 17. Other rov ...
developed by
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
(
Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...
), and currently planned to be delivered to the surface of the Moon in November 2024.
The rover will be tasked with prospecting for
lunar resources
The Moon bears substantial natural resources which could be exploited in the future. Potential lunar resources may encompass processable materials such as volatiles and minerals, along with geologic structures such as lava tubes that together, m ...
in permanently shadowed areas in the
lunar south pole
The lunar south pole is the southernmost point on the Moon, at 90°S. It is of special interest to scientists because of the occurrence of water ice in permanently shadowed areas around it. The lunar south pole region features craters that are ...
region, especially by mapping the distribution and concentration of
water ice Water ice could refer to:
*Ice formed by water (as opposed to other substances)
*The alternate term for various similar frozen fruit-flavoured desserts:
**Italian ice primarily in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley
**Sorbet
Sorbet (), also c ...
. The mission builds on a previous NASA rover concept called
Resource Prospector, which was cancelled in 2018.
On 11 June 2020, NASA awarded
Astrobotic Technology
Astrobotic Technology is an American privately held company that is developing space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions. It was founded in 2007 by Carnegie Mellon professor Red Whittaker and his associates with the goal of w ...
of
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, US$199.5 million to launch ''VIPER'' to the lunar south pole. ''VIPER'' will be carried aboard Astrobotic's
Griffin lander as part of NASA's
Commercial Lunar Payload Services
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to contract transportation services able to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon's south polar region mostly with the goals of scouting for lunar resources, testing in situ ...
(CLPS) initiative. Astrobotic is responsible for end-to-end services for delivery of ''VIPER'', including integration with its Griffin lander, launch from
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
, and landing on the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
.
[ ]
Overview
![Water Detected at High Latitudes on the Moon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Water_Detected_at_High_Latitudes_on_the_Moon.jpg)
The ''VIPER'' rover, currently in development, will have a size similar to a golf cart (around 1.4 × 1.4 × 2 m), and will be tasked with prospecting for
lunar resources
The Moon bears substantial natural resources which could be exploited in the future. Potential lunar resources may encompass processable materials such as volatiles and minerals, along with geologic structures such as lava tubes that together, m ...
, especially for
water ice Water ice could refer to:
*Ice formed by water (as opposed to other substances)
*The alternate term for various similar frozen fruit-flavoured desserts:
**Italian ice primarily in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley
**Sorbet
Sorbet (), also c ...
, mapping its distribution, and measuring its depth and purity.
[NASA's VIPER lunar rover will hunt water on the Moon in 2022]
Devin Coldewey, ''The Crunch'' 25 October 2019 Quote: "VIPER is a limited-time mission; operating at the poles means there's no sunlight to harvest with solar panels, so the rover will carry all the power it needs to last 100 days there" The water distribution and form must be better understood before it can be evaluated as a potential resource within any evolvable lunar or Mars campaign.
The ''VIPER'' rover is part of the Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program managed by the
Science Mission Directorate
The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engages the United States’ science community, sponsors scientific research, and develops and deploys satellites and probes in collaboration with NAS ...
at
NASA Headquarters
NASA Headquarters, officially known as Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters or NASA HQ and formerly named Two Independence Square, is a low-rise office building in the two-building Independence Square complex at 300 E Street SW in Washington, D.C. ...
, and it is meant to support the crewed
Artemis program
The Artemis program is a robotic and human Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) along with three partner agencies: European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration ...
.
NASA's
Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...
is managing the rover project. The hardware for the rover is being designed by the
Johnson Space Center
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...
, while the instruments are provided by Ames, Kennedy, and
Honeybee Robotics
Honeybee Robotics Spacecraft Mechanisms Corporation is a small spacecraft technology and robotics company Erik Baard,Alligators Below City? Try Robo-Inchworms ''The New York Times'' BUSINESS: DIARY; November 10, 2002 headquartered in Brooklyn, ...
.
The project manager is Daniel Andrews,
[NASA's VIPER rover will look for water ice on the Moon]
Mariella Moon, ENGADGET, 26 October 2019 and the project scientist is Anthony Colaprete, who is implementing the technology developed for the now cancelled
Resource Prospector rover. The estimated cost of the mission is US$250 million in October 2019.
NASA said on 3 March 2021 that the new lifecycle cost for the mission is US$433.5 million.
The ''VIPER'' rover will operate on the western edge of
Nobile crater on the Moon's
south pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...
. It is planned to rove several kilometers, collecting data on different kinds of soil environments affected by light and temperature — those in complete darkness, occasional light and in constant sunlight.
Once it enters a permanently shadowed location, it will operate on battery power alone and will not be able to recharge them until it drives to a sunlit area. Its total operation time will be 100 Earth days.
Both the launcher and the lander to be used are competitively provided through
Commercial Lunar Payload Services
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to contract transportation services able to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon's south polar region mostly with the goals of scouting for lunar resources, testing in situ ...
(CLPS) contractors, with Astrobotic delivering the Griffin lander and SpaceX providing the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. NASA is aiming to land the rover in November 2024.
Science background
Data obtained by
Luna 24
''Luna 24'' was a robotic probe of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. The last of the Luna series of spacecraft, the mission of the ''Luna 24'' probe was the third Soviet mission to return lunar soil samples from the Moon (the first two sampl ...
,
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric polar mapping orbit. Data collected by LRO have been described as essential for planning NASA's future human and robotic missions t ...
,
Chandrayaan-1
Chandrayaan-1 (, ) was the first Indian lunar probe under the Chandrayaan program. It was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation in October 2008, and operated until August 2009. The mission included a lunar orbiter and an impacto ...
, and the
Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite
The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was a robotic spacecraft operated by NASA. The mission was conceived as a low-cost means of determining the nature of hydrogen detected at the polar regions of the Moon. Launched immed ...
, revealed that
lunar water
Lunar water is water that is present on the Moon. Diffuse water molecules can persist at the Moon's sunlit surface, as discovered by NASA's SOFIA observatory in 2020. Gradually water vapor is decomposed by sunlight, leaving hydrogen and oxyg ...
is distributed widely (if thinly) across the Moon's surface, especially within permanently shadowed craters in the
south pole region.
[NASA Looking to Mine Water on the Moon and Mars](_blank)
By Soderman NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute
Water may have been delivered to the Moon over geological timescales by the regular bombardment of water-bearing
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
s,
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
s and
meteoroid
A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space.
Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as micr ...
s,
[Elston, D.P. (1968) "Character and Geologic Habitat of Potential Deposits of Water, Carbon and Rare Gases on the Moon", Geological Problems in Lunar and Planetary Research, Proceedings of AAS/IAP Symposium, AAS Science and Technology Series, Supplement to Advances in the Astronautical Sciences, p. 441] or continuously produced ''in situ'' by the hydrogen ions (
proton
A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...
s) of the
solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the sola ...
impacting oxygen-bearing minerals.
[ ] The water ice is unlikely to be present in the form of thick, pure ice deposits, but as thin coating on soil grains.
["Mini-RF Monostatic Radar Observations of Permanently Shadowed Crater Floors" L. M. Jozwiak, G. W. Patterson, R. Perkins. Lunar ISRU 2019: Developing a New Space Economy Through Lunar Resources and Their Utilization July 15–17, 2019, Columbia, Maryland]
If it is possible to mine and extract the water molecules () in large amounts, it can be broken down to its elements, namely hydrogen and oxygen, and form molecular hydrogen () and molecular oxygen () to be used as rocket bi-propellant or produce compounds for
metallurgic and chemical production processes.
["Moon and likely initial in situ resource utilization (ISRU) applications" M. Anand, I. A. Crawford, M. Balat-Pichelin, S. Abanades, W. van Westrenen, G. Péraudeau, R. Jaumann, W. Seboldt; ''Planetary and Space Science''; volume 74; issue 1; December 2012, pp. 42-48 ] Just the production of propellant, was estimated by a joint panel of industry, government and academic experts, identified a near-term annual demand of 450 metric tons of lunar-derived propellant equating to 2450 metric tons of processed lunar water, generating US$2.4 billion of revenue annually.
[
]
Science payload
The ''VIPER'' rover will be equipped with a drill and three analyzers. The Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS), will detect sub-surface water from a distance, then, ''VIPER'' will stop at that location and deploy a drill called TRIDENT to obtain samples to be analyzed by its two onboard spectrometer
A spectrometer () is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomenon where the ...
s:[ ]
See also
* Lunar water
Lunar water is water that is present on the Moon. Diffuse water molecules can persist at the Moon's sunlit surface, as discovered by NASA's SOFIA observatory in 2020. Gradually water vapor is decomposed by sunlight, leaving hydrogen and oxyg ...
*
* Chandrayaan-3
Chandrayaan-3 (, ; ) is a planned third lunar exploration mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Following Chandrayaan-2, where a last-minute glitch in the Soft landing (aeronautics), soft landing guidance software led to th ...
References
{{Lunar Rovers
Commercial Lunar Payload Services
Lunar rovers
Missions to the Moon
2024 in spaceflight