NASA will spend about $800 million to not send a robotic rover to the moon. The rover, known as the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, is already built.

NASA hopes that the data collected by VIPER will help to shape future missions. “Knowing where resources like water-ice are located … as well as the conditions at those locations, will carry ...

VIPER, in which NASA has already invested $450 million, could be stripped and sold for parts. Or a commercial company could snap up the rover and commit some money to save the groundbreaking vehicle.

In January NASA raised hopes that VIPER might somehow still see space when it put out a call for proposals for private aerospace companies to launch and operate the rover. On May 7, however, NASA ...

Back in November 2019, NASA announced plans to send a new rover to the moon. After nearly 5 years and multiple delays, however, it seems Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) won ...

NASA is asking U.S. companies for proposals to move forward with the ice-hunting VIPER moon rover, a $450 million project the ...

NASA elected to cancel VIPER than pursue any of those alternatives, in part because the agency appeared skeptical that VIPER could be ready for launch by September 2025.

VIPER's mission was initially contracted in 2020 with a maximum value of $199.5 million, which was meant as a fixed-cost fee covering every aspect of launch and landing, NASA said at the time.

NASA’s decision to cancel the partnership solicitation is the latest setback for VIPER. NASA announced in July 2024 it would cancel the mission, then planned to launch on Astrobotic Technology ...

NASA is no longer asking U.S. companies for proposals to get the ice-hunting VIPER rover to the moon but still hasn't given up on the mission.

NASA's VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) is a lunar rover which, among other objectives, will search the moon's South Pole for water.

Space agencies around the world are developing moon rovers with advanced capabilities, with NASA’s VIPER among the vanguard of new robotic explorers.