Posted on 07/19/2024 6:22:19 AM PDT by Salman
NASA announced Wednesday that cost overruns and delays have forced it to cancel a planned Moon rover it already spent $450 million to develop, marking a significant setback for the agency's lunar exploration program.
The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) was intended to explore the lunar south pole in search of ice and other resources, paving the way for planned crewed missions by American astronauts under the Artemis program later this decade.
"Decisions like this are never easy," said Nicky Fox, NASA's associate administrator of the science mission directorate.
"But in this case, the projected remaining expenses for VIPER would have resulted in having to either cancel or disrupt many other missions."
The mobile robot, which NASA had hoped would venture into the Moon's permanently shadowed craters, where ice reserves have endured for billions of years, was originally planned to launch in 2023.
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(Excerpt) Read more at spacedaily.com ...
No leftover parts from the Mars Rovers they could just modify ? LOL
How is that DEI working out NASA?
I think she would be more dignified calling herself Nicola rather than Nicky.
DEI takes it’s toll.
Nasa is being filled wigth bag shaggers.
The unqualified Know Nothings are the New face of NASA
Another NASA yard art sale
Gosh…if we only had 60s technology and those black women to do all the math, we could get to the moon (238,000 miles away) instead of only going 200 miles up in every mission. We might even be able to figure out how to get through the Van Allen belts without frying our astronauts
Maybe, but the Mars rover was solar powered, that doesn’t work so well in permanently shadowed crater bottoms.
Stuff that was designed to work in the sunshine of Mars on a near 24 hr day night cycle and never gets anywhere near as cold as a permanently shadowed part of the Moon looking up at 4 Kelvins cold of space. Metals become brittle, batteries freeze, electronics fail, lubricants don’t.
“No leftover parts from the Mars Rovers they could just modify ?”
Excellent point. Even if the rovers needed a few modifications, why not just send one or two to the moon? They’ve got the plans, it should be cheap!
And why can’t we use the same platform for Venus?
This is so simple.
Bolt all the research toys and control parts into a Tesla truck, cover the top with a solar panel. Put it in a lift vehicle and light it up.
Astrobiotics - a company that’s been around since 2007 but has yet to produce a successful product.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrobotic_Technology
$450 M doesn’t really sound like it got past the blue print phase.
A million dollars doesn’t go as far as it used to. Ha Ha.
NASA has become a joke. Just have Musk build the rover and be done with it. Get it on time and under budget, plus working better than they even imagined. Then just fire everyone in NASA until it can be rebuilt without the DEI
MAYBE THEY ENTER IT IN THE BAJA 1000 RUN.
Turn the project over to Elon.
He’ll get it done for 1/2 and on time
NASA is a dinasour afraid to fail.
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