The Briefing Room

General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Space => Topic started by: Elderberry on April 15, 2021, 01:27:44 am

Title: SpaceX will launch Astrobotic lander to the moon with NASA's ice-sniffing VIPER rover
Post by: Elderberry on April 15, 2021, 01:27:44 am

Space.com By Elizabeth Howell 4/14/2021

NASA has a launcher for its ice-hunting rover that will land on the moon in 2023.

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket — the same booster type that once sent the "Starman" mannequin to space in a Tesla Roadster — will send the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the moon, on private company Astrobotic's lunar landing system.

Astrobotic's contract with NASA required the Pennsylvania-based company to independently select a launch contractor, and it chose SpaceX through a competitive procurement.

As with previous Falcon Heavy missions, SpaceX will launch VIPER from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center near Orlando, Florida — a longtime launching location of moon missions, including the Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972.

More: https://www.space.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-launching-astrobotic-moon-lander (https://www.space.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-launching-astrobotic-moon-lander)

Title: Re: SpaceX will launch Astrobotic lander to the moon with NASA's ice-sniffing VIPER rover
Post by: thackney on April 15, 2021, 11:42:36 am

More info:

A lunar water reconnaissance mission
https://science.nasa.gov/science-pink/s3fs-public/atoms/files/09-Colaprete-VIPER%20Overview%20for%20PAC%2008172020.pdf
Anthony Colaprete, VIPER Project Science
August 17, 2020