The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) robot will probe for the presence of ice west of Nobile Crater, near the lunar south pole, officials recently announced from NASA. VIPER will take off at the end of 2023 aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket from SpaceX, before landing on the Moon thanks to a lander built by the company Astrobotic.
The US Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon within the decade. Unlike the Apollo program, this time it will be a question of settling permanently on our satellite. To guarantee the success of this incredible project, astronauts will naturally be able to rely on cargo sent from Earth, but they will also have to rely on local resources as much as possible. This is especially the case with water. Treated, it could indeed be consumed or even allow the production of oxygen and fuel to power future landers and rockets.
On our satellite, this precious commodity is only found in the form of ice mainly in the shaded parts of the south pole, where the Artemis program aims to establish itself. It will therefore be important for NASA and its partners to assess the quantity of this resource in advance In the region. With this in mind, NASA will send a rover named VIPER.
The American agency has indeed announced that the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) developed by the company Astrobotic will land just west of the Nobile crater. On site (93 square kilometers of land), the robot will use a meter-long drill guided by a neutron spectrometer designed to detect wetter areas below the surface. Two other onboard spectrometers will then be used to analyze the samples collected. This work must last at least one hundred Earth days .
VIPER will fly to the Moon in 2023 aboard the Griffin lander, also offered by the Astrobotic company, launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The total cost of this mission is expected to be approximately $660 million . Note that NASA has also selected SpaceX's Falcon Heavy to deliver two fundamental elements of its future lunar station aimed at supporting human missions in deep space.
Finally, let's remember that NASA also called on the company Intuitive Machines, based in Houston, to land another ice extractor on the south pole of the Moon as soon as 'next year. This machine called PRIME-1 will be deposited on our satellite by the NOVA-C lander. This will be the first-ever mission designed to harvest water ice from inside the Moon.
