Tag: VIPER
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Blue Origin Wins NASA Contract to Deliver VIPER Rover to Lunar South Pole
The United States’ space agency NASA has awarded Blue Origin a contract worth about $190 million to deliver its VIPER rover to the lunar surface, giving new life to a mission previously shelved due to cost overruns and delays. Under the award, Blue Origin will transport the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) aboard its…
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Astrobotic’s lander didn’t make it to the Moon because of a failed valve
Seven months after its first lunar lander fell short of reaching the Moon, Astrobotic announced Tuesday that the spacecraft was stricken by a valve failure that caused a propellant tank to burst in orbit. The company’s next landing attempt, using a much larger spacecraft, will include fixes to prevent a similar failure. Astrobotic’s first Peregrine…
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NASA built a Moon rover but can’t afford to get it to the launch pad
NASA has spent $450 million designing and building a first-of-its-kind robot to drive into eternally dark craters at the Moon’s south pole, but the agency announced Wednesday it will cancel the rover due to delays and cost overruns. “NASA intends to discontinue the VIPER mission,” said Nicky Fox, head of the agency’s science mission directorate.…
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NASA cancels half-billion dollar water-ice-seeking VIPER Moon rover
NASA’s VIPER – short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover – sits assembled inside the cleanroom at the agency’s Johnson Space Center. Image: NASA/Helen Arase Vargas NASA announced Wednesday it was pulling the plug on the VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) project. It was the second time in less than a decade, NASA…
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NASA starts building ice-hunting Moon rover
The search for ice at the Moon’s poles has loomed large in the field of lunar science since an instrument on an Indian satellite discovered water molecules inside shadowed crater floors more than a decade ago. NASA is now assembling a golf cart-size rover to drive into the dark polar craters to search for ice…
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Astrobotic into testing of Griffin lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis program
Astrobotic, a Pittsburg-based lunar lander company, has fully assembled the test model for its largest lunar lander in development, the Griffin. A medium-class lander, Griffin is designed to deliver up to 625 kilograms to the lunar surface and survive for 14 days while providing communications and power to the payload if required. The fully loaded…
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NASA VIPER rover and Astrobotic Griffin lander select moon landing site for 2023
The NASA VIPER rover – a precursor mission to human landings in the south polar region of the Moon, and a mission started in 2019 under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program – has had its landing site selected for its 2023 mission. The rover, known as the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, is now…
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NASA Selects Astrobotic to Deliver the VIPER Rover to the Lunar Surface
Astrobotic of Pittsburgh, PA has been selected to deliver NASA’s future Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, to the Moon. The Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative will provide NASA a “rapid acquisition” of commercial Lunar abilities, which will further the agency’s capability of science and commercial development of the moon. The first CLP contracts to…
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NASA Selects Astrobotic to Deliver the VIPER Rover to the Lunar Surface
Astrobotic of Pittsburgh, PA has been selected to deliver NASA’s future Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, to the Moon. The Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative will provide NASA a “rapid acquisition” of commercial Lunar abilities, which will further the agency’s capability of science and commercial development of the moon. The first CLP contracts to…