NASA can save its VIPER rover with private-sector help

When NASA canceled its Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) project, it reached out to private companies to see if anyone in the commercial sector could complete the mission. Several companies have responded, including Intuitive Machines of Houston.

The VIPER rover is designed to roll about the lunar south pole, prospecting for water ice. Water ice will be essential for humans to live and work on the moon long term.

According to Space News, Intuitive Machines is developing detailed plans to take VIPER to the moon if it can work out a deal with NASA. The prospect of VIPER becoming more of a public-private partnership illustrates the great advantage of a thriving commercial space sector to pick up where the space agency has let a project fall.

If the deal with NASA can be concluded, VIPER would fly to the moon on the Intuitive Machines NOVA-D lander, yet to be developed. The VIPER would take up 500 kilograms of mass on the lander, leaving 1000 kg to be sold to commercial customers. 

The company thinks it can make it work, particularly since it believes it can execute the mission for less than the $84 million NASA estimates finishing VIPER will cost.

Intuitive Machines would have full control of the VIPER rover. It would land it on the lunar surface and operate it on its own once it is there. The arrangement would take the idea of a commercial partnership to the next level.

If Intuitive Machines takes over VIPER, the mission could fly as soon as 2027, two years later than planned as of NASA’s cancellation of the mission.

Intuitive Machines already landed a Nova-C probe on the lunar surface in February on a mission designated as IM-1. Even though the lander tipped over on its side, it returned enough science to be a qualified success. It constituted the first successful American moon landing since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.

The company has two more Nova-C missions in the pipeline. The first, IM-2, is scheduled to lift off for the moon in December or January. The landing site is “an elliptical region 200 meters across on the Shackleton Connecting Ridge near the lunar south pole.” The site has an easy line of sight with Earth and likely has ice within one meter of the surface.

The second, IM-3, is scheduled for October or November 2025. The landing site is the Reiner Gamma region, a “lunar swirl” located on the Oceanus Procellarum to the west of the Reiner Crater on the near side of the moon.

These three missions reside under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program in which NASA agrees to provide payloads to private companies to send to the moon. Companies under this program are expected to make money by also providing lunar landing services to other private entities,

One question facing Intuitive Machines and companies like it is when will they become profitable.

To date, Intuitive Machines has been operating at a loss. According to Space News, it reported  $41.4 million in second-quarter revenue, up from $18 million in the second quarter of 2023, with a $28.2 million operating loss, an increase from $13.2 million during the same period in 2023. 

The company has been able to increase its revenue with new jobs that include an engineering services contract for NASA and work on a Lunar Terrain Vehicle. This sort of activity should keep the lights on at Intuitive Machines until Earth-to-moon transportation becomes profitable.

The losses have been attributed to unexpected modifications to both the IM-2 and IM-3 missions. The effects of the potential VIPER mission on the company’s balance sheet have yet to be quantified.

No doubt a shakeout will occur in the Earth-to-moon transportation industry just as it has in every other new commercial sector. Which companies will be around five or 10 years from now and which will fall by the wayside is not something that can be easily predicted.

If Intuitive Machines can get a high-prestige contract like delivering the VIPER to the lunar surface, it will stand a decent chance of getting more commercial customers, especially if and when it lands and operates the rover, discovering untold deposits of water ice. The stakes for the company’s long-term viability could not be higher.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?” as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond,” and, most recently, “Why is America Going Back to the Moon?” He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.