NASA has an ambitious mission to map ice and then drill at the Moon's south pole canceled. The space agency yesterday announced the cancellation of the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), citing budget issues, rising costs and multiple delays in the construction of the rover and its lander. Now it is looking for partners interested in using the rover - which is already assembled - or benefiting from its components for future lunar missions.

The agency has already invested $450 million to build VIPER and reported millions more would be needed for testing. That would jeopardize funding for other planned launches planned under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, in which the agency works with private U.S. aerospace companies to deliver scientific instruments to the lunar surface. Before the mission's delays, VIPER was planned to be the first mission to search for ice on the ground at the Moon's south pole.

“This was a really difficult decision that we made in an uncertain budget environment,” said Nicola Fox, NASA’s associate administrator for science, in announcing the hire. “But we believe this is a way to further support the entire CLPS portfolio.” The US Congress has reduced NASA's 2024 budget compared to 2023, and the US House of Representatives' 2025 budget proposal is only about 1% higher than this year, which is lower than the current inflation rate.

Delayed, then doomed

The US Congress approved $433.5 million to build VIPER and put it on the moon by the end of 2023. The idea was to study ice in the dark, cold craters at the moon's south pole with the aim of extracting the chemical data contained therein to learn more about the origin and formation of the solar system. The ice could also one day serve as a rocket fuel ingredient for future astronauts who land there. Delays in building the rover and the commercial lander that would take it to the moon pushed the launch date to late 2025, with costs rising to an estimated $176 million, according to Joel Kearns, NASA's associate administrator for exploration for science. Such a cost increase automatically triggers an internal review of the agency, which was completed in June.

NASA officials say they still have confidence in Astrobotic, the aerospace company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that is building the lander for this mission. In January, one occurred on Astrobotics' Peregrine spacecraft, which was supposed to be the first U.S. lunar lander in 50 years Propellant leakage, so it got out of control and never reached the lunar surface. Some members of the scientific community are skeptical of the agency's statement.

“I think there was significant concern about Astrobotic's ability to safely deliver [VIPER] to the surface,” says Kevin Cannon, a lunar geologist at Ethos Space, a lunar infrastructure startup based in Los Angeles, California. “It’s disappointing.”

Astrobotic is still committed to launching its Griffin lunar module next year, even though VIPER is no longer on board. The company is calling for proposals for other exploration equipment that could be transported to the moon instead. “Decisions need to be made quickly, but we are exploring all options,” Astrobotic Chief Executive Officer John Thornton said in an emailNature.

Uncertain future

The VIPER has just begun conducting tests to ensure it can handle the vibrations, temperature conditions and vacuum of space. Now NASA is accepting proposals from interested parties to use the rover in its current state. Otherwise, it will dismantle the vehicle and reuse the components for other missions.

“It was quite surprising that they would dismantle a fully assembled rover that is currently in testing,” says Benjamin Greenhagen, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. It would be more likely that NASA would store the rover rather than scrap it entirely, he says.

“Despite what happened with VIPER, we remain committed to continuing to explore the Moon and search for water and ice in all of our future missions,” Fox said at the July 17 announcement. NASA's Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) is scheduled to fly to the moon later this year on a commercial lander from aerospace company Intuitive Machines in Houston, Texas, as part of the CLPS program. Intuitive machines In February, a space probe successfully landed at the south pole of the moon, even though the probe tipped over and could only collect limited data. Like VIPER, PRIME-1 will search for ice and penetrate the lunar surface.