The American space exploration company Blue Origin won an important contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) last Friday and will be responsible for sending the VIPER (Lunar Polar Exploration Rover) to the moon. This not only demonstrates NASA’s confidence in the Blue Moon lander and humankind’s future lunar exploration, but also gives new life to the VIPER project.
Previously, NASA shelved the VIPER rover landing plan last year due to project delays and cost overruns. But the signing of this contract means that the VIPER probe is finally expected to set foot on the lunar surface.
According to the agreement, Blue Origin will transport VIPER (full name: Volatile Polar Exploration Rover) via its unmanned version of the Blue Moon Mk1 lander. Separately, NASA has awarded Blue Origin a contract for a manned lander for the Artemis program, but that program is not the same as this mission.
The contract awarded by NASA to Blue Origin belongs to the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) project, with a total value of approximately US$190 million. The "Blue Moon" Mk1 landing target is located near the south pole of the moon. Scientists speculate that this area contains a large amount of water ice. VIPER will go to the local area to drill to verify the hypothesis of the existence of water ice.
This decision also allowed VIPER to bid farewell to a long period of uncertainty. As early as 2020, NASA selected Astrobotic, a company headquartered in Pittsburgh, to transport VIPER through its Griffin lander, with an initial contract value of US$199 million. However, due to delays in both the rover and the lander, NASA announced in July 2024 that it would cancel the VIPER project due to a surge in costs, although much of the hardware had been manufactured.
The cancellation prompted criticism from lawmakers and the scientific community. A month later, NASA solicited proposals from U.S. companies, seeking to allow existing exploration vehicles to continue participating in lunar missions without increasing additional government expenditures.
For Blue Origin, this win means a lot. This contract will bring the first important scientific mission to the "Blue Moon" cargo lander, and determines the specific launch time - the end of 2027. In addition, this is NASA’s strong support for Blue Origin’s lunar ambitions in addition to the manned lunar landing contract.
The VIPER rover is similar in size to a golf cart and is expected to work on the lunar surface for about 100 days, conducting mobile exploration and drilling and mapping the distribution of water ice. The rover is equipped with a suite of instruments, including a drill and three spectrometers that can detect water, hydrogen and other minerals.
Relevant discoveries are critical to NASA's future scientific goals and the realization of long-term human presence on the moon. Extracting resources locally on the moon, rather than transporting them from Earth, will be a key step. Scientists expect that lunar ice resources can be used to produce drinking water, oxygen, and even rocket propellant in the future.