NASA has announced that the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), developed by Astrobotic, will search for water ice west of Nobile Crater near the lunar south pole. VIPER is scheduled to launch by late 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and land via Astrobotic's Griffin lander.
NASA's Artemis program plans to return humans to the Moon and establish a sustainable presence this decade. Beyond Earth-supplied cargo, astronauts will depend on in-situ resources like water ice, which can be processed into drinking water, oxygen, and rocket fuel for future missions.
Water ice exists primarily in permanently shadowed regions at the lunar south pole, Artemis's primary base. NASA must precisely map these deposits beforehand. Enter VIPER, a key scouting mission.
VIPER will operate across 93 square kilometers west of Nobile Crater, deploying a one-meter drill guided by a neutron spectrometer to pinpoint subsurface moisture. Two additional spectrometers will analyze collected samples. The mission is designed to endure at least 100 Earth days.
VIPER launches in 2023 aboard Astrobotic's Griffin lander on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, with a mission cost of about $660 million. NASA has also tapped Falcon Heavy for key Gateway station components supporting deep-space human exploration.
Additionally, NASA selected Houston-based Intuitive Machines to deliver the PRIME-1 ice-mining drill to the south pole next year via the NOVA-C lander—the first mission to extract lunar water ice.
