Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

NASA delays its VIPER moon mission

By

NASA is planning to send its VIPER vehicle to the lunar surface to search for ice and other resources, but the mission will now take place later than expected.

The space agency had planned to send VIPER — short for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover — to our nearest neighbor in November 2023, but on Monday it said the mission will now take place in November 2024 at the earliest.

Recommended Videos

NASA said the delay is necessary because it wants to conduct further tests on Griffin, the lander that will set VIPER onto the lunar surface.

Related

“The additional tests aim to reduce the overall risk to VIPER’s delivery to the moon,” the space agency said in a post on its website, adding that to complete the additional NASA-mandated tests of the lander, an additional $67.8 million will be handed to Griffin builder Astrobotic, increasing the total cost of the contract to $320.4 million.

Pennsylvania-based Astrobiotic is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which paves the way for private U.S.-based firms to create lunar delivery services for NASA missions as part of its Artemis space program. The agency has so far made seven awards to CLPS providers for lunar deliveries in the early 2020s with more delivery awards expected through 2028.

A prototype of VIPER shown off in January featured the same wheel design and also base size as the rover that will be sent to the moon. You can see it in action below:

Roll 'em out… on the Moon 🌕

Our VIPER rover's latest prototype is getting put to the test at @NASAGlenn, as we get ready to search for ice and other @NASAArtemis resources at the lunar South Pole: https://t.co/J5ADlFE6Vn pic.twitter.com/lgtZLM5z6S

— NASA (@NASA) January 26, 2022

According to the space agency, data gathered by VIPER will provide valuable information regarding the origin and distribution of water on the moon and help mission planners work out the best way to harvest those resources for future human space exploration.

For a closer look at VIPER and the 100-day mission that NASA has planned for it, Digital Trends has you covered.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Intuitive Machines to carry NASA experiments to the moon in 2027
An artist’s concept of Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander on the Moon’s South Pole.

Intuitive Machines, the company that earlier this year managed the first lunar landing by a commercial entity (partly successfully) will be returning to the moon with more NASA payloads. As part of NASA's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program, Intuitive Machines will design and build a lander to launch to the moon's south pole, and NASA will pay $117 million for it to carry six science payloads.

This is part of NASA's broader effort to embrace the burgeoning private space industry by becoming a customer of space companies rather than designing and building its own spacecraft. The aim is for Intuitive Machines to arrive at the moon's south pole in 2027, ahead of the Artemis missions that will see humans return to the lunar surface. The company will also be launching another lunar lander called Athena later this year, with a third launch planned next year as well.

Read more
NASA reveals date for attempted return flight of troubled Starliner
Boeing's Starliner spacecraft docked at the space station.

NASA is targeting Friday, September 6, for the return flight of Boeing Space’s troubled Starliner spacecraft, the agency revealed on Thursday.

The vehicle will come home from the International Space Station (ISS) nearly three months later than originally planned and without the crew that it arrived with. The flight, the outcome of which could determine the Starliner’s future, is expected to take about six hours, NASA said in a blog post on Thursday.

Read more
SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission faces further delay after FAA grounds Falcon 9
A Falcon 9 booster coming in to land.

SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket has been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after one of the boosters toppled over and exploded shortly after landing at the end of a mission on Wednesday.

The FAA said it will carry out an inquiry into the incident, adding that the Falcon 9 shouldn’t fly again until it’s complete.

Read more