NASA said Wednesday it would scrap the VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) project after major realignments in its lunar exploration strategy were recommended by an extensive internal review. This move results from an internal review that has raised questions about rising costs, continuing delays, and the possibility of further overrunning.
The VIPER mission had already been slipped to late 2024 from an initial late-2023 launch date to give more time for preflight testing of the Astrobotic lander. Additional schedule and supply chain delays now slip the readiness date of the rover to September 2025. Also impacted by the delays is the Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, launch flying on Astrobotic’s similarly delayed Griffin lander.
NASA’s Science Mission Directorate associate administrator, Nicola Fox, emphasized the agency’s commitment to lunar exploration despite the cancellation. “We are committed to studying and exploring the Moon for the benefit of humanity through the CLPS program,” she said. Fox noted that the agency has a robust array of missions planned to search for ice and other resources on the Moon over the next five years.
The VIPER rover will be used to prospect for ice and other resource potential at the south pole of the Moon. This pole was selected because it is expected to hold deposits of water ice that may one day be harvested to sustain future lunar settlements. Mounting costs for the project drove the price up from an initial budget of $433 million to over $505 million, thereby threatening other CLPS missions. Joel Kearns, NASA Science Mission Directorate’s deputy associate administrator for Exploration, estimated that scrubbing the mission would save about $84 million.
Although canceled, NASA plans to reuse VIPER instruments and other components on other Moon missions. NASA will solicit—for no cost to the government—expressions of interest from U.S. industry and international partners on the use of the existing VIPER rover system. Expressions of interest are due by Aug. 1.
Astrobotic will fly its Griffin Mission One as part of its NASA contract, launching no sooner than the fall of 2025. VIPER will not fly on this mission, but the landing will serve as a flight demonstration of the Griffin lander and its engines.
Many of the original goals from VIPER will be executed by NASA through other pathways. PRIME-1 will launch in late 2024, landing at the south pole of the Moon in search of water ice and providing a resource utilization demonstration. Future crewed missions will enable mobile observations of volatiles with the Lunar Terrain Vehicle and grant access to the permanently shadowed regions for sample return campaigns.
The VIPER cancellation has put the space community in a disappointed state. Planetary physicist Phil Metzger of the University of Central Florida, another researcher, said it’s a “bad mistake” and indicated that VIPER was going to make very revolutionary discoveries regarding lateral and vertical variability in lunar ice.
In the face of all these challenges, it holds fast to lunar exploration. “Our path forward will make maximum use of the technology and work that went into VIPER while preserving critical funds to support our robust lunar portfolio,” Fox assured.