It has just been reported that NASA has decided to scrap a $450 million VIPER moon rover project due to rising costs against extremely tough budgetary conditions. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover was scheduled to launch in 2025 for exploration at the moon’s south pole, which is believed to have ice deposits. The mission was part of the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, with the plan for 100 days on the surface. However, on July 17, via telecon, the agency announced the cancelation due to financial concerns.
Joel Kearns, NASA headquarters’ deputy associate administrator for exploration, said it was strictly a budgetary decision. “We were very confident in the VIPER team. This gets down to cost and a very constrained budget environment in the United States,” he added. The team worked hard through the pandemic to build the rover, said Nicola Fox, the associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
Although the VIPER project has been canceled, NASA is now looking toward de-integration and reuse of its scientific instruments and elements in future missions. Kearns said NASA would look first for interest from U.S. and foreign industry partners in utilizing the rover as-is.
The cancellation has not only disappointed the scientific fraternity, however; it has also put a big question mark over the future of moon exploration. One of the leading moon scientists from the University of Notre Dame, Clive Neal, reacted, “It’s a dark day for lunar science and exploration.” He condemned NASA for scrapping a capable rover and giving up leadership in resource exploration.
Norbert Schörghofer of the Planetary Science Institute, a senior scientist on the mission, said this would have been the first time the existence of water ice in the polar regions of the moon was confirmed. No other U.S. robotic mission, according to him, could have made such exploration within the next three years. Schörghofer said leadership for this important scientific investigation may now fall to Japan’s Lunar Polar Exploration, known as LUPEX, or China’s Chang’e-7 mission.
It has also brought an opposition wave from within the scientific community. Benjamin Greenhagen, chair of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, said it was devastating news. He has underlined that VIPER brought value to lunar exploration, which couldn’t be had elsewhere, his heart goes out to the engineers and scientists involved in the project.
Space scientists opposed to the decision have prepared an open letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to reverse the act of cancellation on NASA’s decision. The letter has collected over 140 signatures from experts working within more than 24 states, saying that canceling a project like this after investing $450 million is unprecedented and unjustifiable.
The NASA fiscal year 2025 budget has compelled tough choices in several ambitious science programs. Funding for the agency’s science programs was cut by $1 billion, forcing the Science Mission Directorate to make difficult choices. Other programs, such as the Chandra X-ray telescope and the Mars Sample Return program, are also hit by major cuts in budgets.
Even as NASA struggles with financial matters, the scientific community is hopeful that somehow it will find alternative means to realize the objectives initially set for VIPER. This involves the future Lunar Terrain Vehicle and other moon landers that might still be able to reach darkened areas on the moon in search of ice so that the scientific goals set for the mission are not entirely lost.
That is what led NASA to scrub the VIPER moon rover amid financial pressures. The move, in turn, received an outpouring of backlash; however, it shows that innovative ways must be found to continue lunar exploration. The future of lunar science rests in the balance as Earth’s scientists rally to save this mission.