The VIPER moon mission scrapped by NASA last year could be going ahead after all thanks to Blue Origin, the space agency has announced.
There was much dismay last July when increasing costs prompted NASA to cancel the VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) mission following years of development and investment.
As the scientific community expressed huge upset over the loss of a mission designed to search for ice and other resources on the lunar surface, as well as gather data for upcoming crewed missions, NASA decided to have a rethink and later revealed that it was considering a commercial partnership to get the VIPER robotic rover to the moon.
And on Friday, the space agency announced that Blue Origin — the spaceflight company created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — would be given the opportunity to devise a new VIPER mission plan under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
Blue Origin will use its in-development Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) robotic lander, which could be sent on its first lunar flight later this year to deliver a NASA payload to the moon’s South Pole region.
The resurrected VIPER mission means that Blue Origin could deliver NASA’S first robotic lunar rover to the surface of the moon in late 2027.
“NASA is leading the world in exploring more of the moon than ever before, and this delivery is just one of many ways we’re leveraging U.S. industry to support a long-term American presence on the lunar surface,” NASA chief Sean Duffy said in a release. “Our rover will explore the extreme environment of the lunar South Pole, traveling to small, permanently shadowed regions to help inform future landing sites for our astronauts and better understand the moon’s environment — important insights for sustaining humans over longer missions, as America leads our future in space.”
The VIPER mission is wrapped up in NASA’s Artemis program, and while this is largely focused on moon exploration, Artemis will also serve as a stepping stone for the first crewed mission to Mars, which could take place in the 2030s.
