NASA's Moon Rover Faces Extreme Mobility Tests

NASA's Moon rover prototype completed mobility tests.

The VIPER mission is managed by NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley and is scheduled to be delivered to Mons Mouton near the South Pole of the Moon in late 2024 by Astrobotic's Griffin lander as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

VIPER will inform future Artemis landing sites by helping to characterize the lunar environment and help determine locations where water and other resources could be harvested to sustain humans over extended stays.

The VIPER science team also aims to address how frozen water and other volatiles got on the Moon in the first place, where they came from, what has kept some of them preserved over billions of years, and where they go after they escape the lunar soil.

NASA
Moon rover
Prototype
Mobility tests
VIPER mission
Ames Research Center
Silicon Valley
Mons Mouton
South Pole
Moon
Astrobotic's Griffin lander
Commercial Lunar Payload Services
2024
Lunar environment
Water resources
Sustain humans
Extended stays
Artemis landing sites
Characterize
VIPER science team
Frozen water
Volatiles
Moon's history
Lunar soil
Water preservation
Billions of years
Lunar exploration
Scientific research
Space exploration
Astrobiology.