NASA is building a 450kg VIPER rover with headlights to search for water in craters on the moon - the $500m mission will begin in 2024

NASA will create a rover that will search for water in lunar craters. The 450kg lunar rover is called the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER). It will get headlights and a 1 metre long drill to work.

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The space agency announced the VIPER mission four years ago after it shut down the Resource Prospector project. In 2020, the federal agency announced that the rover would be taken to the moon in the Griffin landing module being developed by Astrobotic.

NASA wanted to send VIPER to the moon in late 2023. However, Astrobotic, which was awarded a $200 million contract, was unable to meet the deadline. In this regard, the start of the mission has been postponed to November 2024.

The total cost of the programme is estimated at $500 million. This amount includes payment for the service of SpaceX, because the mission plans to use the Falcon Heavy rocket. The flight to the Moon will take from five to seven months, depending on the chosen trajectory.

Source: ArsTechnica