NASA’s VIPER Rover to explore the Moon’s Relay crater

In a teleconference with reporters Monday, NASA researchers revealed the landing and exploration site decided for its next VIPER lunar ice survey. Lori Glaze, director of the planetary science division at NASA Headquarters, announced that the VIPER mission would land along the western edge of “Relay Crater” at the moon’s south pole.

The decision to select this landing site required balancing a number of competing factors. The mission control “took into account critical parameters, such as the visibility of the Earth – for communications from the Moon to the Earth – sunny terrain which is well suited to the navigation of the rover, and above all, of course, the expected presence of ice and other resources, “Glaze explained,” while analyzing all of these constraints, one study area came out ahead of all the others, maximizing the return of science and flexibility to help ensure mission success once Viper is on the moon. “

During its 100-day mission, the VIPER rover is expected to survey at least six potential sites covering 10 to 15 square miles of lunar surface across one of the coldest areas of our solar system studied to date. This includes permanently shaded craters which have a good probability of potentially containing water ice.

“We really don’t know where this water is, so we had to find a place where we could cover great distances – and by great distances I mean tens of kilometers – going in and out of thermal regimes that included everything, permanently shaded craters with temperatures literally 50 Kelvin in areas that rose to mild 110 Kelvin, then up to 250 Kelvin, ”Anthony Colaprete, senior project scientist at NASA Ames said on the call. “We want to study the whole range of thermal environments.