NASA's VIPER Moon rover is already half-built

NASA's Artemis Moon rover, VIPER, will land at the South Pole of the Moon in late 2024 on a 100-day mission. Ahead of that, the rover team is working hard to build the flight vehicle that will look for ice and other potential resources in the extreme environment of the Moon. In fact, the lunar rover is already half-built and the next step will be to test it in Moon-like environments.

"So now that we are building the flight article, we are able to see precisely how well our design plans are working in reality. There have been some reveals in the first half of the rover build, which we've had to navigate, including connector issues from vendors, where we've discovered and corrected some design and Foreign Object Debris issues, which prevented connectors from reliably working," NASA said on Friday.

Short for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, VIPER is a mobile robot that will roam several miles on the Moon using its three instruments and a 3.28-foot (1-meter) drill to detect and analyze various lunar soil environments at a range of depths and temperatures. Over the course of its 100-day mission, the rover will also venture into permanently shadowed craters, some of the coldest spots in the solar system, where ice reserves have endured for billions of years.

While scientists are aware of ice in permanently shadowed craters, VIPER will investigate whether ice is present, and in what quantities, at and below the lunar surface in areas that receive short periods of sunlight.

The rover's findings will help inform future Artemis missions by identifying where water and other resources can be harvested to support extended stays on the Moon.

🎵 Woahhhh, we’re halfway there! 🎵Our VIPER Moon rover is already half-built, and the best is yet to come! Get the latest update from the mission manager as we gear up for the year of launch: https://t.co/Ri3gJUBwWf pic.twitter.com/bka5kPgfYk

— NASA Ames (@NASAAmes) December 29, 2023