Blue Origin will take the VIPER rover to the Moon

What seemed like a project doomed to oblivion has just gained new life, after being officially canceled in 2024. NASA's lunar Viper Rover, designed to hunt ice in the shadowed confines of the Moon, will have its chance to shine.

And the person responsible for this second opportunity is none other than Blue Origin, Jeff Besos' company, which won the contract to deliver the valuable cargo to the lunar south pole in 2027. The agreement signed within the framework of the CLPS program guarantees Blue Origin up to $190 million to transport the Viper in its Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) lunar landing module. Currently in production, this partnership marks the company's second CLPS contract, cementing its entry into the race for a lasting presence on the Moon during the Artemis campaign.

The mission has clear objectives, the Viper will explore permanently shadowed regions of the south pole, places where sunlight never reaches and which are considered the best candidates to host deposits of water ice. This resource, if confirmed to be in abundance, could be the vital link to sustain future astronauts on the Moon and even supply rockets for further journeys such as Mars.

The Viper's trajectory up to this point was anything but linear, originally planned for 2023, aboard Astrabotic's Griffin module, the project was carried out several times, consumed around 450 million dollars and ended up being canceled under the argument of containing costs, NASA even considered disassembling the Rover to reuse its instruments.

Technically the challenge is not small, the Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) module will be responsible for the entire lunar landing operation, from the integration of the payload to the delicate release of the Rover on the surface, once installed, NASA will assume control of Viper, carrying out a 100-day scientific campaign.

The Rover will carry instruments such as stereo cameras to study the dust plume raised by the moon landing and sensors capable of identifying volatiles, elements that easily transform into gas such as frozen water, which can become fuel, while the south pole could become a permanent base and the Moon will cease to be just a destination and become a springboard into deep space.

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