Several media outlets reported on July 17 that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had canceled the lunar exploration program « Volatile Materials Research Polar Exploration Rover » in order to find water on the moon.
That program called for sending a rover the size of a golf cart to the far side of the moon to detect the presence of water, a crucial element in establishing a manned base. However, NASA announced the cancellation of the project due to rapidly increasing costs and numerous delays. The agency said continued development of VIPER would result in additional costs that could jeopardize other missions in the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
Redirect funds to other missions
To date, NASA has invested $450 million in the development of the VIPER rover, according to a Bloomberg report. Despite this significant investment, the space agency decided to end this mission and redirect its resources to other operations. Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, explains that NASA “ plans various missions to search for ice and other resources on the moon over the next five years. This will preserve critical funding to support the lunar portfolio. »
Astrobotic, an American space exploration company involved in the program, originally planned to launch the VIPER rover aboard the Griffin spacecraft. Although the VIPER mission was canceled, Astrobotic plans to continue with another mission to land the Griffin lander on the Moon without a research rover in the fall of 2025.