Why is NASA canceling VIPER?
It comes right down to cash and NASA science’s lack thereof.
VIPER was budgeted to value $505 million to construct and function for 100 days on the lunar floor, together with surviving a number of 14-day lunar nights. Nonetheless, VIPER’s meeting was delayed because of provide chain shortages, and its experience on Astrobotic’s next-generation Griffin lunar lander was delayed not less than a yr to the autumn of 2025. NASA estimated this might add one other $104 million to the price of the undertaking over the following two years, cash that the beleaguered Science Mission Directorate merely doesn’t have. Company representatives acknowledged that, by canceling the undertaking now, NASA will save $84 million over the following two years.
Whereas $84 million could not appear to be a lot for an company with a $25 billion annual funds, the Science Mission Directorate (SMD), which funds robotic missions comparable to VIPER, is dealing with a extreme budgetary shortfall. Moreover, value overruns usually are not unfold evenly throughout the company: the cash must come from the Planetary Science Division, particularly from the Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program (LDEP) — VIPER’s budgetary residence.
VIPER was already deliberate to obtain $33 million in FY 2025 to wrap up improvement and function the mission on the Moon. This implies the associated fee distinction of a one-year delay is $71 million, which might be unfold out over two fiscal years if the launch occurred within the fall of 2025. Primarily based on projections from NASA’s FY 2025 funds request, $20 million of this might be for operations and program closeout in FY 2026, leaving a further $51 million essential to proceed the undertaking in 2025.
From the angle of NASA’s science management, nevertheless, discovering $51 million within the present funds presents some inconceivable decisions. Inside LDEP, the one vital sources of funding out there for VIPER can be to cut back the politically in style Industrial Lunar Payload Companies program (CLPS), lower funding to scientific instrument improvement for CLPS missions, or lower funds for science instrumentation for upcoming Artemis missions. None of those have been deemed acceptable tradeoffs.
