"The NASA Volatiles Inspecting Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) Mission" - Terry Fong, Colloquium

Originally presented on: Monday, April 8th ,2024 at 11:30am CT, TTIC, 6045 S. Kenwood Avenue, 5th Floor, Room 530
Title: "The NASA Volatiles Inspecting Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) Mission"
Speaker: Terry Fong, NASA
Abstract: The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) is a NASA mission designed to explore the extreme environment of the Moon in search of water ice. VIPER will land at the South Pole of the Moon and spend approximately 100-days mapping and surveying four different "ice stability regions" to understand the nature and distribution of these "in-situ resources". The information returned by VIPER will help determine how we can harvest the Moon's resources for future human space exploration.
NASA will use VIPER to determine where the Moon's water ice is most likely to be found and easiest to access, making VIPER the first-ever resource mapping mission on another celestial body. The first in-situ resource maps of the Moon will mark a critical step forward in NASA's Artemis program to establish a sustainable human presence on the surface of the Moon. Determining the distribution, physical state and composition of water ice deposits will also held us understand the sources of the lunar polar water. giving us insight into distribution and origin of water and other volatiles across the solar system.
During VIPER's exploration of the Moon, the rover will endure extreme temperature conditions, dynamic lighting and complex terrain, while near-real-time rover driving will present new design, engineering and operational challenges.
Tags: #nasa #viper #artemisprogram #resources #robotics