Griffin Mission 1 (VIPER)

Description

The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) on Griffin Mission 1 (TO 20A) is a lunar rover designed to search the regolith for water ice and other volatiles in the Moon's south polar region over a 100-day duration mission no earlier than November 2024. The primary objectives are to learn about the origin and distribution of water on the Moon, and to help determine how to harvest the Moon's resources for future human exploration. It will also be a technology demonstration mission for operations in extreme low temperatures, dynamic lighting conditions, and rugged terrain, as well as for power generation and storage technologies. VIPER is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, in which NASA contracts with a commercial partner that provides the launch and lander.

VIPER is a large rover, 1.5 x 1.5 x 2.5 meters, roughly the size of a golf cart, with a mass of 430 kg. Power is provided by solar panels and a battery, with a peak power of 450 W. Communications are via X-band directly to the Deep Space Network. Top speed of the rover is 0.8 km per hour. It will be driven from Earth in near-real-time. It will carry a 1-meter long drill and a quadrupole mass spectrometer.

The rover is currently scheduled to be launched no earlier than November 2024. It will land on the Astrobotic Griffin lander on Mons Mouton near the western rim of Nobile crater close to the lunar south pole. Over its 100 Earth-day mission it is expected to cover some 20 km, including trips into permanently shadowed craters. It will use the drill and spectrometers to analyze various ice and regolith environments.

For more on NASA's CLPS initiative and missions, see:

https://science.nasa.gov/lunar-discovery/deliveries

Image credit: NASA Ames / Daniel Rutter