NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine revealed a couple of days ago that the space agency plans to send a robotic rover to the moon in 2022. The main goals include looking for water ice.
This plan has been in the works for a few months, and now we finally have confirmation.
Looking for ice on the moon
Space News revealed that during a speech at the 70th International Astronautical Congress, Bridenstine said the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission has the target of looking for ice on or below the surface of the moon.
This represents an important resource for future human missions, according to the same online publicaiton that we mentioned above.
“We actually have a mission right now that I’m very pleased to announce, it’s called VIPER,” he stated.
It’s been also revealed that VIPER would fly to a moon on a commercial lander through the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
“VIPER is going to rover on the south pole of the moon and VIPER is going to assess where the water ice is,” he said.
Bridenstine continued and explained that “We’re going to characterize the water ice, and ultimately drill and find out just how the water ice is embedded in the regolith on the moon.”
VIPER launches in 2022
It’s also worth noting that the VIPER mission will be about $250 million, and it would launch in 2022.
The robotic rover will operate at the South Pole of the moon for 100 days.
Head over to the original article posted on Space News in order to learn more details on the subject.
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