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VIPER moon rover faces delays as NASA abandons plans for industry-funded launch

NASA has canceled its commercial partnership plan for the VIPER moon rover launch and will pursue 'alternative approaches' instead.

BY RAJ NAIK

PUBLISHED 4 HOURS AGO

A NASA engineer working on the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (Viper) (Cover Image Source: NASA )

NASA has changed its strategy for launching the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) moon rover, which aims to find water ice at the lunar south pole. It scrapped its plan to have a commercial company fund and launch the VIPER moon rover and is looking at alternative approaches to get the mission off the ground.

3D renderied image of an abandoned, old lunar rover stands on the surface of the moon against the background of stars and the earth. — 3D rendered image of an abandoned, old lunar rover stands on the surface of the moon against the background of stars and the earth. (Representative Image Source: Getty | Photo credit: Vitaly Kusaylo)

In a statement on May 7, NASA said that they were cancelling a request they made back in February. This request, called a solicitation, was asking for ideas from commercial companies (the "industry") about how they could work with NASA to launch the VIPER moon rover, as reported on SpaceNews. Although specific details were absent, "Following an evaluation of partnership proposals to land a water-seeking robot on the lunar surface, NASA is instead opting to explore alternative approaches,” NASA said in a statement.

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NASA associate administrator for science, Nicky Fox, spoke at the Lunar Surface Science Workshop, where she implied that NASA was looking for alternative options for VIPER, but did not point out that the solicitation had been cancelled. In addition to this, she said, "We really do look forward to accomplishing future volatile science with VIPER.”

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There were two phases involved in the solicitation: NASA first requested the initial "step 1" proposals from companies, due in March. With a May deadline, they intended to invite select companies to send in more detailed "step 2" proposals. Joel Kearns, the deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said, “We are considering alternative partnerships. These are different ways to structure partnership proposals based on what we learned from reviewing the Step 1 proposals.” Later at the workshop, he added that NASA decided to halt the solicitation after reviewing the Step 1 proposals. Further, he shared, “We are looking at different types of partnerships that are structured differently from what we originally envisioned to try to generate stronger proposals.”

Represenattive image of Former NASA aerospace engineer Stewart Meyers explains to local schoolchildren how to fly a Delta Dart rubber-motored model airplane during a workshop at the National Building Museum. () — Image of Former NASA aerospace engineer Stewart Meyers explains to local schoolchildren how to fly a Delta Dart rubber-motored model airplane during a workshop at the National Building Museum. (Representative Image Source: Getty | Photo credit: Alex Wong)

The original partnership proposal was challenging to industry officials and had its setbacks, as it required them to fully fund VIPER's launch and operation without NASA investment. Adding to this difficulty, NASA would retain and freely distribute all resulting data, which would make it hard for companies to develop a sustainable business model.

Multi-national commercial space travelers laying on the seat, inside the spaceship.

Steve Altemus, the chief executive of Intuitive Machines, said in a March 24 earnings call, “I’m not sure what we’re going to do with VIPER yet. The way that it came out, it’s got to be fully funded without NASA, and NASA retains all the data.” Adding further details and emphasizing the lack of opportunity for companies to profit from the mission, he said, “It’s quite limited in our ability to commercialize it.”

In this NASA photo, Space Shuttle Test Director Steve Altemus talks to U.S. Senator Bill Nelson about debris from the Space Shuttle Columbia on March 17, 2003 at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. (Image Source: Getty | Photo credit: NASA)

At an April 1 hearing of the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee on commercial lunar missions, Brett Denevi, a principal staff scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and part of the science community, saw eye to eye, “We should not expect VIPER science to happen by hoping that someone will offer to fly and operate it on their own dime,” as outlined by the outlet.

Image of NASA Administrator James Bridenstine testifies during a hearing before the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee March 27, 2019 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (Image Source: Getty | Photo credit: Alex Wong

The way VIPER was handled by NASA drew criticism from Congress members, who sent a letter in September last year, demanding details about the initial cancellation. NASA's response stated that to accommodate VIPER, they'd have to delay or cancel several missions within its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, as per the outlet. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Science Committee, had stated at an April hearing regarding NASA's responses, “I was not satisfied with the answers that we got. Certainly, the project was terminated after it was complete.”