NASA’s axed moon rover could be resurrected by Intuitive Machines

By Georgina Torbet August 13, 2024

An illustration of NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) on the lunar surface. — Illustration of NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) on the surface of the Moon NASA Ames/Daniel Rutter / NASA Ames/Daniel Rutter

Lunar scientists were shocked and dismayed last month when NASA announced that it was canceling work on its moon rover, VIPER. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover was intended to search the moon’s south pole for evidence of water there, but NASA said that it had to ax the project due to increasing costs.

This week, an open letter to Congress called the cancellation of the mission “unprecedented and indefensible,” and questioned NASA’s assertion that the cancellation of the mission would not affect plans to send humans to the moon. Scientists argued that the mission was fundamental to understanding the presence of water on the moon, which is a key resource for human exploration, as well as an issue of scientific interest.

Recommended Videos

Now, however, the VIPER mission may have the chance to go ahead in a different form. Intuitive Machines, the company that launched a semi-successful lunar lander mission earlier this year, says it is interested in taking over the rover mission and launching it using its own lander.

“Our position there is that VIPER science is important to lunar scientists and the future of the Artemis program, and it’s very important in terms of prospecting for volatiles and entrained water ice in the soil,” said Steve Altemus, chief executive of Intuitive Machines, as reported by SpaceNews.

NASA has expressed interest in handing off the VIPER mission to a commercial partner, which would surely be preferable to all of the work that has gone into the rover so far going to waste. Altemus said his company was looking into what the costs would be to finish work on the rover, and that it was working with other partners such as companies or universities. He did not specify which other organizations were involved.

If Intuitive Machines were to take over VIPER, it could use its Nova-D lander to carry it to the moon, as the Nova-D is still in development, but has a larger weight capacity than the Nova-C lander that landed on the moon earlier this year. The planned launch date for the mission would be late 2027, and news from NASA about the mission’s future is expected next month.

Topics

Tech News

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Space

Intuitive Machines to carry NASA experiments to the moon in 2027

An artist’s concept of Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander on the Moon’s South Pole.

Intuitive Machines, the company that earlier this year managed the first lunar landing by a commercial entity (partly successfully) will be returning to the moon with more NASA payloads. As part of NASA's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program, Intuitive Machines will design and build a lander to launch to the moon's south pole, and NASA will pay $117 million for it to carry six science payloads.

This is part of NASA's broader effort to embrace the burgeoning private space industry by becoming a customer of space companies rather than designing and building its own spacecraft. The aim is for Intuitive Machines to arrive at the moon's south pole in 2027, ahead of the Artemis missions that will see humans return to the lunar surface. The company will also be launching another lunar lander called Athena later this year, with a third launch planned next year as well.

Space

NASA reveals date for attempted return flight of troubled Starliner

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft docked at the space station.

NASA is targeting Friday, September 6, for the return flight of Boeing Space’s troubled Starliner spacecraft, the agency revealed on Thursday.

The vehicle will come home from the International Space Station (ISS) nearly three months later than originally planned and without the crew that it arrived with. The flight, the outcome of which could determine the Starliner’s future, is expected to take about six hours, NASA said in a blog post on Thursday.

Space

Another piece of NASA’s mega moon rocket ships out

Crews moved the cone-shaped launch vehicle stage adapter out of NASA Marshall’s Building 4708 to the agency’s Pegasus barge on August 21. The barge will ferry the adapter first to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, where it will pick up additional SLS hardware for future Artemis missions, and then travel to NASA Kennedy. In Florida, teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems will prepare the adapter for stacking and launch.

Even while NASA is struggling with Boeing's new crewed Starliner spacecraft, it is continuing work on another key piece of space infrastructure: its Space Launch System, or SLS rocket that is designed to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond. Parts of the new rocket are arriving at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and now another key piece is on its ways: the launch vehicle stage adapter.

Standing at 322 feet tall when fully stacked, the SLS is NASA's most powerful rocket to date and has already been on a test flight around the moon as part of the Artemis I mission in 2022. Now, NASA is preparing for its first crewed flight using the rocket, which will be the Artemis II mission scheduled for September 2025. Unlike NASA's current woes with the Starliner spacecraft, which ferries astronauts between Earth and the International Space Station, the Artemis II mission will use a different spacecraft called the Orion.