NASA Viper robot is a lunar rover that the agency will be sending to the moon in 2022 to search for deposits of water below the surface. NASA has revealed a new spaceship that the agency hopes to send to the lunar surface to scout out water ice near the South Pole.
VIPER is going to rove on the south pole of the moon. VIPER is going to assess where the water ice is. – Jim Bridenstine, Agency Administrator
NASA VIPER robot stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover. The lunar rover is expected to arrive on the moon’s South Polar Region on December 2022, carrying four instruments to sample lunar soil for traces of hydrogen and oxygen. These are the basic components of water that can be separated and synthesized into fuel for a planned fleet of commercial lunar launch vehicles.
For Scientists, lunar water acts as a primary resource for enabling long-duration astronaut missions on the moon, though its form and exact amount are yet to be known that VIPER will aim to find out. NASA crashed a rocket into the moon’s the South Pole in 2009 to confirm traces of lunar water ice in the plume of dust kicked up upon impact.
