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Context
- VIPER to look for answers on lunar South Pole on how did frozen water arrive on Moon.
About
- VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) is a lunar rover developed by NASA (Ames Research Center), and currently planned to be delivered to the surface of the Moon in November 2023.
- The rover will be tasked with prospecting for lunar resources in permanently shadowed areas in the lunar south pole region, especially by mapping the distribution and concentration of water ice.
- VIPER will be carried aboard Astrobotic's Griffin lander as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
- Nasa has selected Nobile Crater as the potential site for landing the rover and exploring the possibility of resources.
- Nobile is an impact crater that was formed through a collision with another smaller celestial body and is almost permanently covered in shadows, allowing ice to exist there.
Why the South Pole?
- The Moon’s South Pole is one of the coldest areas in our solar system and scientists have thus far only studied the region using remote sensing instruments, including those on Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.
- Data from these observations have led to the conclusion that the South Pole on the Moon could be home to ice and other potential resources that exist in permanently shadowed areas of the Moon.
- Scientists aim to study the origin and distribution of water on the Moon and prepare to harvest the resources 2,40,000 miles from the Earth that could be used to safely send astronauts farther into outer space.
- VIPER team aims to address how frozen water and other resources arrived on the Moon in the first place and plans to identify where they came from, how they remained preserved for billions of years, how they escape, and where they go.
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