nasa has An ambitious mission to map ice cream and the subsequent drilling at the south pole of the moon broken off. The space authority announced the hiring of the Volatile Investigating Polar Exploration Rovers (Viper) yesterday and named budget problems, rising costs and several delays in the construction of the rovers and its landing equipment. Now she is looking for partners who are interested in the use of the Rovers - who is already assembled - or who want to benefit from their components for future moon missions.

The authority has already invested $ 450 million in the construction of Viper and reports that another millions would be necessary for tests. This would endanger the financing for other planned starts that are planned as part of its Commercial Lunar Payoad Services (CLPS) program, in which the authority works with private US aerospace companies to transport scientific instruments to the lunar surface. Before the Mission's delays, Viper was planned as the first mission to look for ice on the ground at the south pole of the moon.

"This was a really difficult decision that we made in an unsafe budget tumbling," said Nicola Fox, deputy administrator of the NASA science area, when she announced the attitude. "But we believe that this is a way to further support the entire CLPS portfolio." The US Congress reduced the NASA budget for 2024 compared to 2023, and the budget proposal for 2025 of the US House of Representatives is only about 1 % above this year, which is lower than the current inflation rate.

delayed, then doomed to fail

The US Congress approved $ 433.5 million to build Viper and bring it to the moon by the end of 2023. The idea was to examine ice in the dark, cold craters at the south pole of the moon, with The goal of extracting the chemical data included to learn more about the origin and formation of the solar system. The ice could also serve as rocket fuel ingredients for future astronauts that land there. Delays in the construction of the rovers and the commercial landing clerk that should bring him to the moon moved the start date to the end of 2025, whereby the costs rose to an estimated $ 176 million, according to Joel Kearns, deputy administrator for exploration at NASA in the science area. Such an increase in costs automatically triggers an internal review of the authority that was completed in June.

NASA officials say that they still have trust in Astrobotic, the aerospace company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that builds the landing device for this mission. In January it occurred at Astrobotics Peregrine spaceship, which was to be the first US lunar country device for 50 years, to a Leaf exit , so that it was out of control and never reached the lunar surface. Some members of the scientific community are skeptical of the authority's statement.

"I think there were considerable concerns about the ability of Astrobotic, [Viper] safely to the surface," says Kevin Cannon, a lunar geologist at Ethos Space, a Lunar Infrastructure startup based in Los Angeles, California. "It's disappointing."

astrobotic is still determined to start his grip in moonland ferry next year, although Viper is no longer on board. The company calls on suggestions for other exploration equipment that can be transported to the moon instead. "The decisions have to be made quickly, but we will check all options," said John Thornton, Chief Executive Officer from Astrobotic, in an email to Nature .

uncertain future

The Viper has just started to carry out tests to ensure that it can manage the vibrations, temperature conditions and the vacuum of space. Now NASA accepts suggestions from interested parties to use the Rover in its current state. Otherwise she will dismantle the vehicle and reuse the components for other missions.

"It was quite surprising that they would dismantle a fully assembled rover that is currently in tests," says Benjamin Greenhagen, planetary scientist at John's Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. It would be more likely that NASA is storing the rover instead of completely scraping it, he says.

"Despite the events with Viper, we remain determined to further explore the moon and look for water and ice in all of our future missions," said Fox at the announcement on July 17. The Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (Prime-1) of NASA will later fly intuitive machines in Houston, Texas, as part of the CLPS program to the moon with a commercial landing device of the aerospace area of ​​the aerospace company. Intuitive machines Successfully landed a space probe on the south pole of the moon in February, although the probe tipped over and could only collect limited data . Like Viper, Prime-1 will search for ice cream and penetrate the moon surface.