The Dumbest NASA Decision In Years? Why NASA is Being Forced To Ground Rover and Sent Ballast.

Summary

Scott Manley discusses the cancellation of NASA's Viper Rover mission due to budgetary constraints, despite the project nearing completion. The cancellation is mandated by a 2005 law that prohibits projects exceeding 30% over budget from continuing without congressional approval. Manley highlights the irony of NASA potentially sending a mass simulator instead of the Viper to the Moon and calls for political intervention or private funding to salvage the mission, emphasizing its importance for lunar exploration and future space endeavors.

Takeaways

• 📉 NASA recently held press conferences discussing the deorbiting of the International Space Station and the cancellation of the Viper Rover mission.
• 🛠️ Viper, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, was designed to explore the South Pole of the Moon with a drill and spectrometer to find ice.
• 🚀 Viper was to be delivered by the Griffin Lander, built by Astrobotic as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
• 💰 Due to budgetary constraints and laws, NASA has to replace the completed Viper Rover with a mass simulator on the Griffin Lander.
• 📉 The cancellation is partly due to the 2005 law that stops NASA from proceeding with projects exceeding 30% over their initial budget without congressional approval.
• 🔄 Delays and additional testing for the Griffin Lander contributed to the budget overrun, pushing the project over the 30% threshold.
• 🔧 The extra year of delay due to the Lander's postponement added costs for maintaining the project team and infrastructure, further increasing the budget.
• 🔬 The mission aimed to investigate the presence of water on the Moon, which is crucial for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) and future human settlements.
• 🌑 The unique design of Viper accommodated the low sun angles at the lunar poles, with solar panels on the sides of the boxy rover for maximum sunlight exposure.
• 🔦 Viper was the first rover designed with its own lighting to explore permanently shadowed regions of the Moon.
• 🚨 The cancellation of Viper could be influenced by internal NASA policy debates or political moves, rather than purely operational or scientific reasons.

Q & A

Who is Scott Manley?

Scott Manley is the person speaking in the video transcript, likely a space enthusiast or commentator discussing recent NASA news.

What were the two NASA press conferences about?

The first press conference was about the deorbiting of the International Space Station, and the second was about the cancellation of the Viper Rover mission.

What is the Viper Rover?

The Viper Rover, or Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, is a 430 kg rover designed to explore the lunar South Pole, drill into the surface, and analyze ice using its spectrometer.

Why was the Viper Rover mission cancelled?

The mission was cancelled because the project exceeded its initial budget by more than 30%, triggering a legal requirement to halt the project unless additional funds are authorized by Congress.

What will NASA send instead of the Viper Rover?

NASA will send a mass simulator, which is essentially a chunk of mass, instead of the Viper Rover to fulfill the terms of the CLPS contract with Astrobotic.

What is the CLPS program?

The CLPS, or Commercial Lunar Payload Services, program is a NASA initiative to work with commercial partners to deliver payloads to the Moon.

What are the reasons for the Viper Rover project going over budget?

The project went over budget due to typical construction issues, pandemic-related supply delays, inflation, additional testing requirements for the Griffin Lander, and delays in the Lander's launch.

What are some potential ways to save the Viper Rover mission?

Potential ways to save the mission include getting additional funding authorized by Congress or finding a private partner or university to help fund the project.

What was the predecessor of the Viper Rover?

The predecessor of the Viper Rover was the Resource Prospector mission, which had a similar goal of exploring the lunar poles and analyzing water ice.

What are some unique features of the Viper Rover?

The Viper Rover has features like a neutron spectrometer, infrared spectrometer, mass spectrometer, and a drill. It is also designed with headlamps to explore permanently shadowed regions and has solar panels mounted on its sides due to the low Sun angles at the lunar poles.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Cancellation of NASA's Viper Rover Mission

Scott Manley discusses the unfortunate cancellation of NASA's Viper Rover due to budgetary constraints. Viper, the 'volatiles investigating polar exploration Rover,' was designed to explore the South Pole of the Moon for ice deposits. The cancellation is a result of budget overruns triggering a 2005 law that halts projects exceeding their initial budget by 30%. Despite NASA having already paid for the Griffin Lander and the payload, they must now send a mass simulator instead of the Rover. Manley highlights the irony and frustration of this situation, especially in the context of international space exploration advancements.

05:01

🌑 Viper's Mission and Potential Alternatives

This paragraph delves into the purpose of the Viper mission, which aimed to investigate the presence of water at the lunar poles, crucial for potential in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) and human sustainability on the Moon. The cancellation could lead to the disassembly of the Rover and the possibility of its instruments being repurposed for other projects, such as the endurance Rover. Manley also speculates on potential private sector involvement in saving the mission, emphasizing the importance of such exploration for the future of space travel and the potential embarrassment for NASA if the mission is not salvaged.

10:01

🛰️ The Impact of Viper's Cancellation on NASA's CLPS Program

The cancellation of the Viper mission reflects negatively on NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which is intended to foster private-public partnerships for lunar exploration. Manley criticizes the performance of commercial partners like Astrobotic, which has contributed to the delay and budget overruns. He also touches upon the potential internal NASA politics that may be influencing the cancellation, suggesting that some within the agency may prefer traditional NASA-led missions over commercial partnerships.

15:02

🔄 The Future of Lunar Exploration and Viper's Legacy

In the final paragraph, Manley summarizes the situation surrounding Viper's cancellation and its implications for future lunar missions. He expresses hope for congressional intervention or private funding to prevent the disassembly of the Rover and to allow it to fulfill its scientific mission. The summary also considers the potential redirection of Viper's instruments to other missions and the broader impact on public perception and international space competition.

Keywords

💡International Space Station (ISS)

The ISS is a space station, or habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit. It serves as a research laboratory for scientific studies in various fields. In the script, there was a discussion about its deorbiting, which reflects the end of its operational life.

💡Viper Rover

The Viper Rover, or Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, is a lunar rover designed to explore the Moon's South Pole for water ice. The script details its cancellation due to budget constraints, despite its completion.

💡Griffin Lander

The Griffin Lander is a lunar lander built by Astrobotic Technology as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. It was supposed to deliver the Viper Rover to the Moon, but will now carry a mass simulator instead.

💡CLPS Program

The Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program is a NASA initiative to contract private companies to deliver science and technology payloads to the Moon. The script mentions CLPS in the context of the Griffin Lander and the Viper Rover mission.

💡30% Budget Cap

A legislative rule that prevents NASA from continuing any project that exceeds its initial budget by more than 30%, unless Congress intervenes. The Viper Rover's cancellation is attributed to this rule.

💡Astrobotic

Astrobotic Technology is a private company contracted by NASA to build the Griffin Lander. The script criticizes Astrobotic for delays and budget overruns that contributed to the Viper Rover's cancellation.

💡Resource Prospector

A previous NASA mission design aimed at extracting and analyzing lunar resources, particularly water ice. The Viper Rover was essentially a continuation of this earlier project.

💡ISRU

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) refers to the use of materials found or manufactured on other astronomical objects (like the Moon) to support human space missions. Viper's mission was to explore this potential by finding and analyzing water ice.

💡Environmental Testing

A phase in spacecraft development where the vehicle is tested under conditions that simulate space environments, such as vacuum and temperature extremes. The script mentions that the Viper Rover needed to undergo such testing.

💡Neutron Spectrometer

An instrument used to detect and measure neutrons, often employed to analyze the composition of planetary surfaces. The Viper Rover was equipped with a neutron spectrometer to help find water ice on the Moon.

Highlights

NASA discussed the deorbiting of the International Space Station and the cancellation of the Viper Rover.

Viper Rover, designed to explore the Moon's South Pole, has been constructed but will not be flying due to budgetary constraints.

NASA has to send a mass simulator instead of the Viper Rover due to funding laws.

The cancellation is because the project exceeded 30% over its initial budget, triggering a legal limit on NASA spending.

Delays and increased testing requirements added significantly to the budget, pushing it over the limit.

The Griffin Lander, which was to carry the Viper Rover, has also faced delays, adding further costs.

The Viper Rover was intended to drill for ice at the lunar poles and analyze it using various spectrometers.

The project Viper originally began as the Resource Prospector in 2015 and was later reborn as Viper under the CLPS program.

Viper's design features include a big box shape with solar panels on the sides to operate at the Moon's poles.

The mission plan involved navigating areas with variable sunlight, a unique challenge due to the lunar pole's illumination cycle.

If the Viper mission proceeds, it will undergo environmental testing, including vacuum chamber tests.

If Viper is not saved, its components may be repurposed for other projects, such as the Endurance Rover.

The CLPS program, which Viper is part of, aims to use commercial services for lunar payload deliveries, but has faced criticism and challenges.

Scott Manley hopes for a resolution that allows Viper to fly, either through additional funding or private partnerships.

There is a possibility that Congress or private entities might step in to save the Viper project from cancellation.

Transcripts

hello it's Scott Manley here on

Wednesday this week there were a couple

of NASA press conferences which were

both a bit of a downer one was about

discussing the deorbiting of the

International Space Station but more

immediately the second one was about the

cancellation of the Viper Rover a Rover

which has just finished

construction and will now not be flying

to the Moon because of the way budgetary

laws kick in so the Viper is the

volatiles investigating polar

exploration Rover it's being built uh

just down the road from me at Nasa as it

was a 430 kg design designed to go to

the South Pole it had a drill it would

drill into the surface it had a

spectrometer to analyze and find ice and

it would be delivered on the Griffin

Lander built by astrobotic as part of

the clips program the commercial lunar

payload services and the weirdest and

most bizarre thing about this is because

of the way Clips is funded NASA has

already paid for the Lander and the

payload and since the Rover is being

cancelled they have to send something

else they will be sending a mass

simulator rather than the Rover which

has just been finished building right

this is one of the most bizarre bits of

news and I'm sure you know like the

China space fans out there are just

going to be laughing at this because

China's landed a couple over India space

they're going to be laugh they just

landed their Rover but no and NASA is

going to take the Rover that has just

built and disassemble it and instead fly

a chunk of mass you know chunk of block

of something instead maybe they'll send

like a big you know Pizza to the moon or

something just to show that this

commercial Lander works so look the

reason why this is getting cancelled is

because back in 2005 uh NASA there was a

law written that basically says if NASA

any NASA project exceeds 30% % over its

initial budget then NASA on its own is

not allowed to proceed with a project

from that point the only money they can

spend is money to shut the project down

now they can go to Congress and they can

get uh politicians to say well we think

you know put some money in or whatever

to rewrite the law to allow them to

proceed with this project but I'm not

sure I'm going to see that happen it's

an election year not sure uh

there are politicians that want to risk

this because putting stuff like this on

a commercial service was seen as pretty

risky um but yeah look why is it 30%

over budget well a big part of this is

because well you've got all the usual

stuff you know you have issues with

construction needs sorted they had a lot

of delays in getting things delivered

that was partly because of the supply

issues related to the pandemic there was

a little bit of inflation in there but

also as they got through the design

process they get a little Cy about this

Griffin Lander and asked astrobotic to

do some more testings that added $50

million to their budget I think the

original budget was $450 million or

thereabouts and the by the time they're

done it would be more than this the uh

also then the Ro sorry then the Lander

got delayed so it was potentially going

to launch at the end of this year now

it's not and that's going to add a whole

other year and that means a whole year

that you have to keep all the key

project staff on hand you have to keep

the spares around you have to give

people something to do so they're being

pay they're paying extra for this and

that extra year is enough to push them

over their prospected budget and so the

whole project goes off to Congress and

yeah one of the most frustrating things

about this is that I can see why uh

politicians might pass this 30% cap you

know to provide some incentive right a

to keep missions in line and stop them

expanding over their resources by huge

amounts unchecked

but the problem is when the clips

contracts were written by you know back

in 2020 they clearly didn't include any

enough penalties for the likes of

astrobotic who have been able to go way

over schedule and therefore are are the

ones that are causing the mission itself

to get canceled and they're not the ones

getting punished because they are still

getting paid they're just not flying

anything that they could lose in an

embarrassing fashion and so it's bizarre

that over the last few years we have

seen lots of people try to land stuff on

the surface and fail because of software

because of code issues chandrian 2 baret

Luna 25 Haku are all failed because of

problems with their computer

code but Viper is going to fail because

of problems with Le code how about that

for innovation in America now look it's

not guaranteed at this point that this

is going to shut down sure there's a

chance that Congress does something

there is also uh like NASA is looking

for potential Partners who might want to

do something with the Rover before they

start disassembling it and putting the

parts into other Rovers it's entirely

possible that some University says well

this is only going to cost us $20

million and then we can you know put our

name on there and get exclusive access

to the science and stuff that may or may

not happen maybe Jeff Bezos he's big on

the moon why why doesn't Jeff come along

with his very Deep Pockets so anyway

look let's just talk about Viper in

general I actually got to sit in on one

of the live build streams at Nasa it was

very interesting to talk about it with

the the developers and the designers of

this so the lunar South poles are the

lunar poles are interesting because they

don't get nearly as much sunlight and

because uh various satellites like lunar

prospector uh and lady have found

evidence that there is water trapped at

the lunar poles but we're not quite sure

where it is so we wanted to send a Rover

down there and actually dig into the

surface and see whether there was enough

water that whether it was in a form that

could be easily extracted because then

you can do uh you know insitu resource

reextraction right utilization isru is

what they call it and the idea is you

can take water out you know heat up your

soil it comes off as vapor and then you

maybe crack it into hydrogen and oxygen

and then you have rocket propellant and

it's great because a lot of Rocket

propellant is spent getting rocket

propellant to space so if you could get

it from the moon suddenly that makes

expanding and exploiting and you

industrializing the solar system vastly

easier also of course humans need water

so it'd be nice to find that on the moon

as well this project Viper actually goes

back to a previous Mission design called

a resource prospector which was I think

it started out in like 2015 and it had

pretty much the same idea they would

have a drill they would have a little

little oven and a spectrometer they

built like an example Rover tested it

and they were working towards developing

this into a proper Mission and then on

April 23rd 2018 someone at NASA decided

to cancel the mission and what's really

interesting about 23rd of April 2018 is

that it's the same day that Jim

brightenstein started as the NASA

director so somebody at Nasa literally

cancelled this Mission hours before a

new administrator came in who was

actually quite interested in doing stuff

on the moon and he wasn't in any

position to reverse this but he was in a

position to as part of the clips program

move Viper into being and make that part

of the clips program so yeah essentially

resource perspector was reborn as Viper

and it became part of the clips program

it was moved to NASA as and it's worked

through all its design its construction

it is ready to go the main thing that

has to happen to the Rover is it needs

to go through environmental testing it

needs to uh go into like vacuum Chambers

and verify that all the electronics work

you know run through the different

thermal Cycles when you put things in a

vacuum sometimes you'll find the

electrical stuff arcs across the Gap

because as you reduce the pressure

passions law basically says that you

know your resistance of the gas goes or

the the medium goes down and you can get

electrical arcs in places where they

shouldn't be or they wouldn't be in the

earth uh in in the Earth's atmosphere so

because the Viper was designed to

operate at the poles with low Sun angle

it doesn't look like other Rovers it's a

big box and the sides of the Box have

the solar panels right because it has to

stick up high the antenna sticks up a

whole lot higher the panels have to

stick up higher rather than sitting flat

on the top and that makes the Rover look

big and boxy but actually most of that

space above the top uh you know the top

half is empty it's just you know

structure to carry those solar panels

the Rover is still actually kind of low

Center of mass with all the drive and

the Power Systems close to the ground

the middle of the Rover does have this

big long drill that needs to go

vertically so that is actually part of

the structure in addition to the drill

the other instruments it had was like a

neutron spectrometer infrared

spectrometer a mass spectrometer all

this stuff would be used to analyze the

stuff that was brought out from the

surface of the Moon now uh it was

interesting that when they looked at the

resource prospector it had like an oven

that they could use to heat up the

material and look at the gases coming

off they didn't do that in this case

they just said well let's extract the

stuff with a drill dump it into a pile

and then move the Rover around so that

instruments can actually look at this

pile of stuff that we just pulled out

from underneath the surface rather than

having a specific you know section of

the the U Rover that would actually

contain and analyze this stuff and that

would be not as good but it would be

more than adequate to actually make some

amazing discoveries I'm sure see one of

the really cool things about Viper was

that because it was going to the South

Pole its operations were going to be

very different from other Rovers so at

the pole the sun doesn't get very high

above the Horizon and it doesn't get

very low above the Horizon but the way

the Shadows move are like the way

Shadows move close to Sunset you know

you will see the Shadows get very long

you will find areas where it's hidden

where you know the sun is blocked and

you'll have areas that remain in

sunlight longer the mission plan had to

really take this into account they had

designed traverses where they would go

from one light area to another area and

they would have to cross this time this

distance in the time when the sun was

high of above the Horizon and then they

would reach a safe spot while the sun

started to get low for like you know

about half the Year this the moon's

poles are illuminated by the Sun and

then for 6 months they're not

illuminated by the Sun so Viper could

only operate for a limited amount of

time and even then it had to be very

careful moving through these spaces and

you know there would be times when it

would have the opportunity to descend

into a permanently shadowed region with

headlamps it was the first Rover

actually designed with its own lighting

so that it could actually investigate

some of these

regions because of this because of the

six-month cycle It could only really

launch towards the end of 2024 and then

a year later in 2025 if it launched too

late once it got to the moon the sun

would be going down and it wouldn't have

enough time for this so any delay pushed

it back and honestly when I heard that

Griffin was going to be delayed I was

actually quite happy with that because I

felt that the clips program while it has

great potential right now it's a bit of

a mess you know we've had astrobotics

parag grin fail we had U intuitive

machines Odyssey barely get to the moon

after this problem with the ground

checklist and honestly the commercial

people may want to act like they're the

future of space flight but they have to

step up and actually start doing it and

and unfortunately this just makes Clips

program look even worse and it could be

that look this cancellation is part of

like some internal policy at Nasa there

are people at Nasa that still want to

handle all these Landers they argue that

they should be the ones doing this not

some we shouldn't be buying it from some

outside company I'm I'm thinking that

you know if you get this going then you

get the sort of SpaceX effect and

suddenly don't have to worry about these

minutia but there's definitely a lot of

people at Nasa that want this still to

be happening and they could absolutely

be ones that are responsible for this in

as a political move rather than a

operational or scientific move they are

following the letter of the law they're

not moving funds in the way that

agencies move funds around but maybe I

don't know enough about internal NASA

funding right this thing could be

complicated in ways that I don't don't

understand right there's all sorts of

magic that happens when you're

administrating funds that uh it's not

rocket science and frankly I'm not sure

what NASA's doing if it's not rocket

science so now what happens if Viper

isn't saved well the it's going to be

disassembled the instruments are going

to be made available to other projects

and one possible project that would make

sense would be the endurance Rover which

is more or less Viper but instead of

using solar power it uses nuclear power

and that means that it could operate for

much longer it could operate essentially

year round now it might have issues with

thermals at night and it would also need

a relay satellite because for a

significant part of the time Earth is

very low in the Horizon and unavailable

but yeah that is a possibility and it

might make more sense but I think that

you would be talking a fairly

significant delay during which of course

uh it's highly likely that the human

Landing system emus 3 gets to the Moon

before the Rovers and then you know

they've got to do a whole bunch of stuff

that the Rovers would normally be doing

so it's not really I I I strongly think

that Viper should get to the moon before

the current emis stuff but the problem

of course is that yeah you require

someone at Congress to actually look at

this and say well we spent all this

money on this thing and we're going to

spend another bunch of money to send a

block of metal to the Moon why don't we

just put the r over on there oh yeah

this law says well screw that law I'm a

lawar right you know that's the kind of

person someone with imagination that's

able to like see the sensible thing and

also see that yeah other countries are

essentially going to laugh at this if

NASA shuts this down under this

circumstances yeah space politics

sometimes makes me makes me

angry uh but yes uh I'm I'm just hoping

that we see something going I I'm hoping

that the clips program actually starts

producing some real results soon because

otherwise uh it's it's uh it's not

looking that great okay so once again

let's summarize things Viper was

supposed to go to the moon at the end of

this year because of delays and other

stuff it is not going moreover it's

possibly going to get disassembled and

the Lander is going to land without the

Rover it's going to land with a block of

stuff instead the only way to save it is

for someone at Congress to actually go

in and authorize this right to authorize

spending just little bit more money to

actually get it to the moon or for a

private company or individual or

university to come along and put up some

part of the funding to keep this project

below the 30% cap or it's potentially

getting disassembled and flown to the

moon the instruments may get flown to

the Moon in future missions which are

likely to get there long after humans

have put boots on the moon again uh

which you know it will still be valuable

scientifically it won't be a cool thing

in the Public's imagination a lot of

people know about Neil Armstrong landing

on the moon they don't know about the

two Soviet Rovers that moved around the

moon for longer than any of the Apollo

Astronauts ever did so yeah look I'm

hoping this gets sorted out in the best

way possible I want to see a win for the

US Space Program I'm Scott Manley fly

safe

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