NASA swings budget axe, kills $400M+ VIPER lunar trundlebot

Creeping costs, launch delays mean almost completed rover 1) will never see Moon, 2) will be stripped for parts

The budget axe has swung, and NASA's VIPER rover will not be trundling around the lunar surface any time soon.

NASA revealed last night that it would discontinue the development of the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) project. The trundlebot is pretty much complete, but rather than slog through testing before integration and launch, the US space agency has elected to cut its losses and cancel the project.

The plan is to strip the robot for parts, although NASA is open to offers from US industry or international partners to use the existing VIPER system "at no cost to the government." Interested parties had better move quickly, though – the agency "will consider expressions of interest" by August 1, and at some point after that, we assume, a sad-faced engineer will have a go at the rover with a screwdriver and pliers.

NASA awarded the Astrobotic a Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract in 2020 to deposit VIPER on the Moon in 2023. The launch date then slipped to 2024, and the most recent estimate for VIPER's readiness date was September 2025. The Astrobotic Griffin lander has also been delayed.

NASA said, "Continuation of VIPER would result in an increased cost that threatens cancellation or disruption to other CLPS missions." The Astrobotic Griffin Mission One will continue under the existing contract but will now only serve as a demonstration of the Griffin lander and its engines.

During a briefing on July 17, Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, described the move as "a really tough decision that we make in an uncertain budget environment."

Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in the Science Mission Directorate, noted that the budget for the rover was expected to exceed its baseline development costs by more than 30 percent, which automatically triggered a cancellation termination review in June.

The costs have risen over the years. When NASA forecast a landing at the end of 2023, US Congress was told the budget would be $433.5 million. When the landing slipped to the end of 2024, the budget rose to $505.4 million. The move to 2025 would have resulted in a budget of $609.6 million.

By canceling the rover at this point, NASA expects to save a minimum of $84 million. The figure would have risen if the late 2025 launch date was missed. This is because a nine- to 12-month wait would be needed for lighting conditions at the Moon's South Pole to be good enough for the mission.

As for the mortal remains of VIPER, NASA plans to use the trundlebot's instruments and components on future missions, in which many of the goals of VIPER are intended to be accomplished. NASA gave the example of the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) as another that will search for water ice at the South Pole. ®