The VIPER rover after deployment
Credit: NASA
NASA recently announced that Astrobotic has been granted a second contract to deliver payloads to the lunar surface. The new contract will take the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, to the lunar south pole in late 2023, flying aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin lander. NASA’s associate administrator for science, Thomas Zurbuchen, said, “The VIPER mission will search for ice and map resources to bring us a significant step closer to NASA’s ultimate goal of a sustainable long-term presence on the Moon … This will help make it possible for humans to eventually explore Mars and beyond.” The contract is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, through which the agency contracts commercial companies to fly payloads. The Griffin lander is for larger payloads such as the 1,000-pound (450-kilogram) VIPER; the first Astrobotic lunar contract will be delivered on the smaller Peregrine lander. VIPER will search the south polar region for in-situ resources such as water ice for use in life support and rocket fuel production.