Despite what the contents of this and recent episodes might imply, my passion is for science not for spacecraft. The thing is, sometimes spacecraft are needed to do the science.
And lately, I and many others have been a bit forlorn about the possible cancellation of the VIPER rover, which is fully constructed and mostly ready to go to the moon. This mission was slated to ride on an Astrobotics lander this month, but Astrobotics got delayed and NASA just didn’t feel like sticking the mission in storage. Instead, they offered it up to whoever could make the best case to take over the mission.
The thing is, NASA can’t really cancel a mission if Congress doesn’t want them too, and there are early indications that congress really likes VIPER and would like to see it fly. On Sep 7, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology wrote an open letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stating, “This is a critical time to demonstrate the United States’s commitment to leadership on lunar science and exploration, and any action taken with regards to VIPER must further that purpose.” They go on to request detailed cost and schedule information about the proposed mission termination as well as the alternative options for the rover going forward.
Between this letter and news that NASA is reviewing 11 different expressions of interest in taking over the mission, it feels like VIPER will have a chance to one day rove as it was designed to. We can only hope that the team that designed and built it is given the opportunity to control that future.