Intuitive Machines is looking to take over the four-wheeled lunar rover after NASA canceled a planned trip to the moon due to budget constraints.
The Houston-based company is responding to NASA’s request for help from organizations that want to partner with the space agency to send a rover to the moon, company officials revealed during a recent earnings call. interest. NASA will provide its water-seeking robot as-is, and a selected company or organization will do all the rest to land the mission on the moon and achieve some or all of its science goals.
VIPER, the Volatile Survey Polar Rover, is designed to find and study water ice at the lunar south pole. The $450 million mission, scheduled to launch in September 2025 aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin lander, is designed to deliver a rover to the moon under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services task order. The mission has suffered several supply chain delays, and NASA recently decided to cancel VIPER’s trip to the moon over concerns it would disrupt other commercial payload missions to the moon.
When NASA first broke the news, it revealed that it would disassemble the VIPER rover and use its parts for future missions. However, the decision sparked outrage within the scientific community over the loss of a precious robot. In response, NASA suddenly called on organizations to take over its lunar robots and send them to the moon.
Intuitive Machines takes action; SpaceNews reported on an earnings call that the company is currently working with other companies, research institutions and international partners to respond to NASA’s information requests. “Our position is that VIPER science is important to lunar scientists and the future of the Artemis program, and is important for the exploration of volatiles and entrained water ice in soils,” said Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines. Quotes from the phone call.
The company is no stranger to the moon. Intuitive Machines launched the Odysseus lander in February as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The lunar lander successfully landed on the lunar surface, but the landing wasn’t so smooth. Odysseus likely got one of his legs caught during his descent, causing him to roll over and possibly end up lying on the rocks.
Hope VIPER has better luck. During the conference call, Intuitive Machines officials revealed that the lunar rover could carry the upcoming Nova-D lander (which is still in development). The rover will launch sometime in late 2027.
NASA has already completed most of the work on the robots, although the space agency has made clear it will not spend more money on its canceled mission to the moon. “It is our intent that any partnership will result in no additional cost to NASA,” the space agency wrote in its request for information. Additionally, NASA expects its partners to compensate Intuitive Machines if it is selected to take over VIPER. Any capability, including additional testing of the rover, payload preparation and science team support.
NASA has previously sought assistance from the private sector. In 2018, NASA canceled another lunar rover with similar goals, the Lunar Resource Prospector (LRP). However, with the launch of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, NASA has committed to flying LRPs on future private lunar missions.
The news of VIPER’s cancellation is equally disappointing, but there is hope that both missions will still be able to land on the lunar surface in the future.
More: How a small team at Intuitive Machine is solving a major lunar challenge
