The company Astrobotic has to park the rover – at almost $ 200 million – on the south pole of the moon.

In 2024, NASA plans to send people to the moon again. But before that groundbreaking manned mission can begin, several unmanned missions to the moon will first be undertaken. Moon rover VIPER’s mission – scheduled for 2023 – is one of them. And yesterday, NASA finally announced which commercial company can put this rover on the moon. It has become the Astrobotic company.

Griffin
The company has been given $ 199.5 million – a sloppy 176 million euros – to put VIPER on the moon in one piece. For that money, NASA expects Astrobotic to take care of everything from launch and landing. In principle, NASA only supplies the lunar rover. It is up to Astrobotic to integrate it on the Griffin lander developed by the American company and launch it and land it safely on the south pole of our natural satellite.

Besides, it is not the first job that NASA entrusts to Astrobotic. Earlier, the American company received within the so-called Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative (see box) also order to put some other instruments on the moon. Astrobotic will integrate these instruments into its home-built lunar lander and then send it to a large lunar crater in July 2021. The contract involves nearly $ 80 million. The American companies Intuitive Machines and Orbit Beyond were also previously told that they can put instruments on the moon on behalf of NASA. They received 77 and 97 million dollars from the American space agency for this purpose.

About the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative
The Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative was created by NASA to organize short-term manned missions to the moon. The first manned mission is already planned for 2024. But prior to that mission, NASA plans to explore the moon – especially the South Pole – a little further and test specific technologies (required for the manned missions). In order to realize this in a short time – and at a competitive price – NASA outsources the transport of these instruments and thus the rover VIPER. U.S. space companies can then sign up and make a quote, and NASA has a choice. For example, more than 200 companies previously made themselves heard when NASA was looking for a party that could integrate some instruments on its own lander and then want to put the whole thing on the moon.

Hunting for water
NASA boss Jim Bridenstine is pleased that it has now also successfully outsourced the launch of VIPER. “Commercial partners are changing the way we explore space, and VIPER will greatly boost our efforts to put the first woman and the next man on the moon by 2024.” In the run-up to that manned mission, VIPER will set foot on the moon by the end of 2023 and search for water (ice) at the South Pole. Locating water is very important, as astronauts will need it, especially during longer missions on the surface of the moon, and it is nice that they can collect it on location. Therefore, VIPER’s findings are expected to have a significant impact on the selection of suitable landing sites for human spacecraft to be sent to the moon after 2024.

In order to ensure that VIPER will soon be able to hunt for water optimally, some instruments that the robber wants to pass on will be tested on the moon in the coming years. They will board commercial landers that will land on the moon on behalf of NASA in 2021 and 2022. “We are doing something that has never been done before,” underlines Thomas Zurbuchen, of NASA. “We test the instruments on the moon while developing the rover.” And it is all made possible in part by the close collaboration with American companies, which ultimately not only enables (long-term) manned missions to the moon, but also paves the way for manned missions to Mars.