In mid-July, NASA announced that it had canceled the VIPER mission to the Moon. The project which cost the agency $450 million to date, was designed to map the location and concentration of potential off-planet resources, like ice, on the South Pole of Earth’s Moon.
While the development – which didn’t experience major issues and was currently in the phase of environmental testing – was heading in the right direction, NASA decided to end the mission prematurely due to budgetary concerns. The agency expects to save at least $84 million in development costs plus the launch cost.
However, VIPER, short for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, could still see the Moon"s surface. After the announcement, NASA “accepted expressions of interest from the broader community” and is ready to provide to contribute the VIPER rover “as-is” to an interested partner, essentially saving the planned 100-day mission.
On Friday, NASA issued a Request for Information to seek interest from American companies and institutions in conducting a mission using the agency’s rover, adding that it will explore interest from the international community through separate channels.
NASA said it is doing so “as part of its commitment to a robust, sustainable lunar exploration program for the benefit of all.” It wants to learn more about how interested parties would use VIPER at “minimal to no cost to the government.”
“We want to make the best use possible of the engineering, technology, and expertise that have been developed by this project to advance scientific knowledge of the Moon. Partnership opportunities on VIPER would allow us to do this without impacting our future cadence of commercial deliveries to the Moon, to continue lunar science and exploration for everyone’s benefit,” NASA explains, adding it also aims to pursue alternative methods – as a substitute to VIPER – to verify the presence of frozen water at the lunar South Pole.