A rover built at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will never go on its original mission — but the space industry has a chance to get an up-close look at it.
NASA said July 18 that it will wind down the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, project after costs ballooned beyond expectations.
VIPER had been expected to cost $433.5 million, not including the costs of launching, but delays to the launch date caused that figure to rise to over $600 million, Joel Kearns, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration, said during a press conference. That increase automatically triggered a cancellation review in June.
“Since 2021, the VIPER project costs have gone over their original commitment and are now expected to exceed what we call the baseline development costs by more than 30%,” Kearns said.
NASA told the Houston Business Journal that the final instruments to be carried along with the rover arrived at Johnson Space Center in March 2023. The rover has been assembled, but not tested, since June 4 — when the decision on its fate was made. JSC personnel working on the rover will continue to close out the program’s functions until spring 2025, at which point they will be transferred to other NASA projects.
While VIPER will never go on its mission to look for polar water on the moon, it could still have a second life in the space industry. NASA is offering the opportunity for space companies to use the rover system at no cost to the government. That opportunity was opened to industry partners on July 18.
NASA declined to disclose the number of companies that have reached out regarding VIPER since then. A spokesperson told the HBJ that an update would be provided after the window of opportunity closes on Aug. 1.
Companies interested in taking the VIPER prototype must show the value of their interest to NASA before the agency provides them with the rover. Commercial use cases must also come at no cost to the government and be consistent with U.S. export controls and proprietary supplier information restrictions.
The rover was initially set to be delivered on board a SpaceX rocket along with Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic’s Griffin lander in late 2024. Astrobotic received a contract worth nearly $200 million from NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Service, or CLPS, program, which also is based in Johnson Space Center.
Astrobotic will still fly Griffin and is reviewing new payloads to replace VIPER, according to the Pittsburgh Business Times, a sister paper to the HBJ.
Houston could provide commercial VIPER replacement
Several Houston companies are in the running to replace VIPER’s intended purpose as Artemis III, NASA’s manned mission to the moon, draws closer. Intuitive Machines Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR), which landed the first commercial spacecraft on the moon earlier this year, was one company that won a piece of a $4.6 billion contract to develop a Lunar Terrain Vehicle, or LTV.
Another Houston Spaceport company, Axiom Space, was named as a development partner for another LTV prototype. Hawthorne, California-based Venturi Astrolab said Axiom Space will serve as a “teammate” for its lunar vehicle contract, which could be worth up to $1.9 billion.
Meanwhile, NASA signed an agreement with Japan to develop a pressurized rover capable of moon exploration. Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche told the HBJ in an earlier interview that the rover’s development could take place at Exploration Park, a new area created near Johnson Space Center for industry and academia to interface with NASA.
“You’ve got all these installations, your astronauts in their spacesuits, you may have a lander with science payloads,” Wyche said. “Where can you go to make sure all of these things are integrated, that they can share data, robotically interface with each other?"
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