NASA's VIPER lunar rover

[selvaarchi]

"New VIPER lunar rover to map water ice on the Moon"

http://www.moondaily.com/reports/New..._Moon_999.html

NASA is sending a mobile robot to the South Pole of the Moon to get a close-up view of the location and concentration of water ice in the region and for the first time ever, actually sample the water ice at the same pole where the first woman and next man will land in 2024 under the Artemis program.

About the size of a golf cart, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, will roam several miles, using its four science instruments - including a 1-meter drill - to sample various soil environments. Planned for delivery to the lunar surface in December 2022, VIPER will collect about 100 days of data that will be used to inform the first global water resource maps of the Moon.

[selvaarchi]

"NASA awards Pittsburgh startup Astrobotic with $200 million to send water-hunting rover to the moon"

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/11/nasa...-the-moon.html

NASA awarded Pittsburgh-based space robotics startup Astrobotic with nearly $200 million on Thursday for a key lunar mission, which will hunt for deposits of frozen water the moon.

Astrobotic will be responsible for launching the rover, called VIPER, and landing it near the moon’s south pole in late 2023. The company will use its Griffin lander to deliver the VIPER rover to the lunar surface under the $199.5 million contract. Astrobotic has 74 employees on staff, the company told CNBC, working on its Peregrine and Griffin lunar landers.

[selvaarchi]

"The Lunar VIPER rover and the space economy"

https://spaceq.ca/the-lunar-viper-ro...space-economy/

Today is December 21st, the Winter Solstice, and also the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. For the Space Economy podcast, it is the beginning of our annual three part Winter Series where we feature content from other creators.

This year we’re featuring three episodes all related to NASA’s return to the Moon with the Artemis program, and all are intertwined in the space economy of today and tomorrow.

The first episode is on NASA’s VIPER rover, a precursor science mission that does double duty in providing new data that will help scientists better understand the Earth-Moon dynamic, while at the same time providing key data to those interested in using lunar resources as part of a future lunar economy. The content originated from the Future in Space Operations weekly teleconference. The guest speaker is Dan Andrews, Director of Engineering at NASA’s Ames Research Center. The presentation that goes with this podcast is available below.

[selvaarchi]

"VIPER lunar rover mission cost increases"

https://spacenews.com/viper-lunar-ro...ost-increases/

A NASA rover mission to look for ice at the south pole of the moon has passed a key review, but now costs significantly more than previously advertised.

NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission passed its confirmation review Feb. 24, the agency said in a statement. That allows the mission to move into implementation ahead of a launch scheduled for late 2023.

“We’re now ready to finish the design and operational planning for this rover, and then start building it,” said Daniel Andrews, project manager for VIPER at NASA’s Ames Research Center, the lead center for the mission, in an agency statement.

The cost of the mission has gone up significantly. At the time NASA announced VIPER in October 2019, it projected a cost of about $250 million. As part of the confirmation review, known as Key Decision Point C, NASA set a formal cost commitment for the mission. NASA spokesperson Alison Hawkes said March 3 that the new lifecycle cost for the mission is $433.5 million.

[bknight]

Will they select a FH to launch or would that be overkill?

[selvaarchi]

Will they select a FH to launch or would that be overkill?

unless they are sending other things with it, it would be a overkill.