Blue Origin wins NASA deal to ferry VIPER rover to lunar south pole

On Friday, the Blue Origin Moon won a big NASA deal to supply a lunar rover, which is a strong vote of confidence in both Blue Moon Lander and the future of human exploration.

The deal means that Viper Rover will finally delay and expenditure out of the cost of the whole program last year after shelving the whole program will last the lunar surface.

Under the agreement, the Blue Origin Viper will carry the viper – “Object Polar Explosion Rover Investigator is the Investigator” – its undefined Blue Moon MK 1 Lander. Separately, under NASA Artemis a human-rated lander agreement has been given to the company, but this program is different from this mission.

This new award was granted for about 190 million dollars in NASA’s commercial Lunar Pay -Load Services Task order. Blue Moon MK 1 is targeting a site near the Lunar South Pole, where scientists suspect that there is a significant store of water ice. Vipper will fall into the surface to test that hypothesis.

The decision closes an uncertain chapter for the nephew. The company has first selected Pittsburg-based Astrobotic in 2020 In order to supply the rover in Griffin Landar, initially a reward of $ 199.5 million worth of rewards. After the delay on both the rover and the lander, NASA canceled the viper on July 2024With the quote of ballooning expenditure, though most hardware was already built.

This move was criticized by lawyers and scientists. A month later, NASA issued a request for Ideas from US companies so that the government did not add additional expenses to search for ways to work on the existing rover.

For the blue source, this win is important: this award gives Cargo Workhors Lander its first high-profile scientific pay and it gives a schedule at the end of 2027 It also identifies the second largest NASA approval of the company’s lunar ambition after the Human Landing System Agreement.

Regarding the size of the golf cart, the viper will spend about 100 days on the lunar surface, driving around, driving around and drilling for water ice deposits. The rover is equipped with a number of devices designed to detect water, hydrogen and other minerals.

The results are NASA’s future science goals and the key to any long-term human presence on the moon, where the seating-in-situ will be criticized instead of turning away from the earth. Ice can one day become drinking water, oxygen and even rocket propellants.