NASA pulls plug on Viper rover, aims to save £69 million

The NASA agency has announced the project's conclusion related to the plans to send the Viper rover to the Moon. Calculations indicate that it will bring savings of approximately £69 million, but the costs incurred for the entire undertaking are significantly higher.

According to estimates, NASA spent approximately £369 million on the Viper (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) project, not including costs related to launch preparations. The decision to cancel this programme aims to save £69 million, which would have been allocated for further project development.

Viper was supposed to land near the Moon's south pole and spend 100 days searching for ice deposits. Initially, it was planned that the rover would be launched at the end of 2023. However, delays in the work schedule and supply chain issues caused the launch date to be moved to 2025. At that time, it was assumed that Viper would fly aboard the Astrobotic Griffin lander as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

However, NASA ultimately decided to dismantle Viper. The rover's components will be used in future Moon missions. Before dismantling, the agency will consider transferring some elements to industrial firms in the USA and international companies that have expressed interest in acquiring the rover.

NASA assures that the cancellation of the Viper project will not affect the implementation of other projects related to the exploration of the Moon. The Prime-1 mission (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1) is scheduled to land on the Moon in the fourth quarter of 2024. Its goal is also to search for ice and conduct measurements of the volatile content of subsurface materials.

It's worth noting that these are not the first changes to plans that NASA has introduced this year. The portal space.com reports that the agency announced it was seeking new concepts regarding the Mars Sample Return programme in April. This programme aimed to fly to Mars and bring soil samples back to Earth before 2040. However, the original plan was deemed too labour-intensive and time-consuming. Cuts also affect the funding for the Chandra X-ray telescope - this programme has been reduced from £34 million in 2025 to just £4 million in 2029.

NASA's recent decisions are related to the agency's budget being reduced by £822 million in 2025. The decision to cancel the Viper project was announced a few days before the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. As part of this mission, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon.