NASA resurrects its VIPER moon rover for a 2027 mission with Blue Origin

NASA is outwardly giving its ice-scouting moon rover mission one other attempt. The house company has announced that the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) challenge — which was called off last year after a sequence of delays and mounting prices — might catch a experience to the moon with Blue Origin in 2027 beneath the Business Lunar Payload Providers (CLPS) program. Blue Origin should first plan and show how the supply on the lunar floor would work, and if it is all to NASA’s liking, VIPER can be ferried by the corporate’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander.

Blue Origin hasn’t but tried a moon touchdown, however the first alternative for its Blue Moon Mark 1 lander is anticipated to launch later this yr as a part of one other CLPS supply. That mission will even assist to tell NASA’s resolution about VIPER’s rideshare, which might use a second Mark 1 lander that the company says is already in manufacturing. If VIPER does finally make it to the moon, it’s going to be deployed within the excessive surroundings of the lunar South Pole to seek for water ice and different sources that might help future missions. 

“This supply might present us the place ice is most certainly to be discovered and best to entry, as a future useful resource for people,” mentioned Joel Kearns, Deputy Affiliate Administrator for Exploration with NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in a press release. “And by finding out these sources of lunar water, we additionally achieve beneficial perception into the distribution and origin of volatiles throughout the photo voltaic system, serving to us higher perceive the processes which have formed our house surroundings and the way our inside photo voltaic system has advanced.”