Inside the scramble to save NASA’s half-billion-dollar, water-hunting moon rover

(CNN) — A half-billion-dollar rover that could be crucial to US lunar ambitions sits fully assembled but in a state of limbo, mere steps away from being ready for launch.

Known as the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, the 948-pound (430-kilogram) vehicle is designed to scour the moon’s south pole to locate water ice: a key resource that, if found, could one day be converted to drinking water for astronauts or even rocket fuel, which could bolster NASA’s plans to establish a permanent lunar settlement under its Artemis program.

But VIPER may not make it off the surface of Earth.

Citing budgetary concerns, NASA announced last month it was canceling plans to put VIPER on the moon — even though the agency has spent years developing the rover and is still committed to pay for its ride to space. The move sent shockwaves through the science and space exploration community, which has since leapt into action.

Commercial space companies scrambled to submit proposals to NASA, suggesting ways the project could be saved. A petition with more than 4,500 signatures is circulating in Congress, asking that VIPER be revived. And some lawmakers have expressed concerns or publicly called for a reversal.

“There’s just a general sense of concern over this decision. It doesn’t quite make sense,” said Jack Kiraly, director of government relations at the nonprofit Planetary Society, which led the petition urging Congress to act. “For them to cancel it at this point, I think is turning a lot of heads on the Hill and in the (space) community writ large.”

Though not the only NASA-led project designed to hunt for water on the moon before astronauts arrive, VIPER was perhaps one of the agency’s best shots. While other projects involve satellites remotely gathering data or a stagnant drill, VIPER is designed to roam the lunar surface, collecting data about specific resources and digging into the soil where appropriate.

At this point, the project’s future could unfold at least three ways: Lawmakers could step in and direct NASA to change course. VIPER, in which NASA has already invested $450 million, could be stripped and sold for parts. Or a commercial company could snap up the rover and commit some money to save the groundbreaking vehicle.

To this end, several players in the private sector — including at least one now-familiar name — have been scrambling to make their bids.

A corporate savior?

At the same time NASA announced its abrupt plans to end the VIPER program, it also turned to its international partners and the US commercial space industry for help — a common theme at the space agency as it seeks to turn more work over to private companies to keep costs down.

NASA asked for companies to submit “expressions of interest” by August 1. And at least a dozen have reached out, according to the Planetary Society, which is keeping close tabs on how the VIPER program might evolve. (NASA did not respond to requests for comment.)

Among those companies is Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based firm that made headlines this year by successfully landing its Nova-C spacecraft on the lunar surface. The vehicle, called Odysseus, tipped over, forcing significant disruptions to the historic mission, but it became the first US-made spacecraft to touch down safely on the moon in five decades.

The company has worked to prepare for a second Nova-C mission, slated for later this year. And the availability of the VIPER spacecraft piqued the company’s interest for future projects, Intuitive Machines told CNN.

The VIPER rover “is essentially complete,” Tim Crain, cofounder and chief technology officer at Intuitive Machines, told CNN, “and it has a small amount of testing to go.”

Under Intuitive Machines’ proposal, it would use a new, scaled-up version of its Nova-C lander, called Nova-D, to take VIPER to the moon’s surface as soon as late 2026 or mid-2027, according to Crain.

To get reach that goal, Intuitive Machines will likely have to dip into its own funds to complete VIPER’s finishing touches before liftoff.

NASA and its commercial partners have already estimated that the rover needs roughly $100 million of additional investment — mostly for testing and ground systems to support flight — before it’s ready to head moonward, and Crain said he considers that a “good top-end number.” But if Intuitive Machines takes over, he said the company would negotiate with NASA on cutting down those costs.

“It’s kind of like buying a home with some renovations underway. We’re going to evaluate those things and decide which ones that we’re still (going to do),” Crain said. “We’ll work as a commercial entity, right? We have to manage cost.”

Intuitive Machines and the lunar gold rush

But VIPER is a heavily science-focused spacecraft. So what does a profit-seeking company stand to gain from it?

Crain said VIPER can gather crucial data that Intuitive Machines and other companies are seeking. Josh Marshall, the company’s communication lead, likened the search for resources on the moon’s surface to the California gold rush of the mid-1800s.

“It’s an apt analogy,” Crain said, adding that VIPER will act like an earlier prospector hunting for gold — in the form of water or other exciting resources  — commodities that will be crucial to spurring interest in mining on the moon. (US law permits mining for space resources.)

Intuitive Machines envisions itself as the company “selling picks and shovels,” rather than becoming a gold purveyor, Crain added.

VIPER can also send back information about soil composition at the moon’s south pole and data about how a wheeled vehicle can traverse the uneven terrain, Crain said. That information can help inform how Intuitive Machines designs a wheeled moon buggy for astronauts, for which the company already has a small NASA contract. And any other new information gleaned by VIPER could become highly desirable in the space industry, as Intuitive Machine learned after its first mission this year.

“We view that data and that experience as very valuable,” Crain said. “We’re collecting data that’s never been collected before, and in fact, we actually have some customers today that are paying us for data.”

A fork in the road and an empty lunar lander

Of course, it’s not clear whether Intuitive Machines will have the opportunity to take over the VIPER program.

CNN was not able to confirm which other companies or international partners expressed interest to NASA or what those proposals might entail. The agency did not provide comment or updates about the VIPER program for this story.

The uncertainty around VIPER’s future has also created a troublesome few weeks for the company that had originally been slated to fly the rover to the moon on behalf of NASA: Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology.

Astrobotic made international headlines in January when it launched its first attempt to put a lander on the moon, though its Peregrine spacecraft ultimately abandoned those plans because of a propellant leak.

As a result of the hang-ups Astrobotic encountered and the failure of its inaugural flight, NASA and Astrobotic decided the company should carry out additional propulsion testing on Griffin — the lander slated to carry VIPER to the moon — to ensure it was more reliable, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton told CNN.

The additional testing, however, pushed Griffin’s expected launch date — and VIPER’s ride to the moon — into late 2025, two years later than initially intended. And NASA was concerned about even more delays ahead, as VIPER itself had experienced long delays because of supply chain issues.

Cost-wise, the added wait time was too much for NASA to stomach since it would have had to maintain the spacecraft during that period. That’s in part what led to the space agency’s decision to cancel the project, officials revealed during a July 17 news conference.

Thornton said Astrobotic found out that the VIPER program was being canceled shortly before it was announced publicly.

And that decision left the Griffin lander slated to fly empty. NASA even suggested putting a “mass simulator” — aerospace parlance for a heavy piece of junk — onto Griffin instead of the VIPER rover, treating Griffin’s first mission solely as a test. (NASA has already committed $350 million to Astrobotic to fly the Griffin mission, and that won’t change with VIPER’s cancellation, Thornton confirmed.)

But Thornton really hopes Griffin will haul something more important than dead weight to the moon.

The company is scrambling to evaluate science instruments and commercial payloads that could replace the VIPER, Thornton said, and Astrobotic has considered about 60 options.

“There’s lots of interest … but the timeline is the hardest thing,” Thornton said, “because building space hardware takes time. It’s very difficult to integrate (a new payload) to a lander that’s already been optimized and built around VIPER from its very beginning.”

Thornton noted that the company may try to fly its own payload, called LunaGrid. The LunaGrid system involves putting vertical solar panels on the moon’s surface that can provide power to all types of spacecraft, including rovers and landers, to extend their missions.

A LunaGrid payload could be an ideal replacement for VIPER, Thornton said. Additional funding would be needed to make it feasible, though Thornton did not say how much.

Thornton also noted that Astrobotic was considering submitting an “expression of interest” to NASA for VIPER but declined to elaborate.

Rewinding the clock

Of course, another option for VIPER remains: Congress could reverse NASA’s decision.

If that happens, NASA could see VIPER’s testing through and reassign the rover to the Griffin lander for launch. Such an outcome would be ideal, said Kiraly, who has discussed the issue with lawmakers and circulated the Planetary Society’s petition.

And some politicians have already signaled their desire to revive VIPER.

“I’m very disappointed in the recent NASA decision to cancel the VIPER rover,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, at a July 25 budget hearing. “Please work with me as the bill moves forward to look for ways to repurpose the lander portion of this mission to advance moon-to-Mars objectives. The mission directly supports a national imperative for continued US leadership in science and exploration in the face of urgent geopolitical competition.”

Lawmakers in Washington, DC, have repeatedly linked NASA’s moon ambitions to an ongoing race with China for global dominance in space. That country has its own plans to locate water on the moon and establish a permanent base there.

Kiraly said the leadership of the US Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies has already committed to working on the issue. A spokesperson for Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican who’s the ranking member on that subcommittee, confirmed his commitment to finding a solution for VIPER — noting lawmakers are actively discussing various options.

Congress may take action at any point during its final budget negotiations, leading up to the end of the fiscal year on September 30, Kiraly said.

“I think there might be other opportunities for the Congress to weigh in” after budget deadlines pass, “depending on what happens,” Kiraly noted.

“It’s just going to be a matter of: How does NASA move forward in this unprecedented situation?” he added. “It’s going to be really, really interesting to see how this plays out from the perspective of someone that really cares about the return of the moon — that cares about the scientific exploration of space.”