The VIPER Mission, a Resource-Mapping Mission on Another Celestial Body

The Volatiles Investigation Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission is a lunar polar volatiles prospecting mission developed through NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Planetary Science Division with launch in late 2023. VIPER’s mission goals are to (1) characterize the distribution and physical state of lunar polar water and other volatiles in lunar cold traps and regolith and (2)provide the data necessary for NASA to evaluate potential return of In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) from lunar polar regions. VIPER will be optimized for lunar regions that receive prolonged periods of sunlight (short lunar nights). The mission duration will be more than 90 Earth days and result in a traverse distance of up to 20 km. The mission includes a rover-borne payload that can locate surface and near-subsurface volatiles, excavate, and analyze samples of the volatile-bearing regolith, and demonstrate the form, extractability, and usefulness of the materials.