Thousands of scientists have protested to the US Congress over NASA’s „unprecedented and unsafe” decision to cancel its Viper lunar rover mission.
In an open letter to Capitol Hill, they condemned the move, revealed last month, and sharply criticized the space agency for a decision that shocked astronomers and astrophysicists around the world.
A car-sized rover has already been built At a cost of $450m The probe was planned to be sent to the moon next year, when a one-meter drill was used to prospect for ice beneath the lunar surface in the soil at the moon’s south pole.
Ice is considered essential for plans to build a lunar colony, not only providing water for astronauts, but also providing them with hydrogen and oxygen that can be used as fuel. As a result, the prospect for resources was rated as a priority for lunar exploration, which is planned to increase over the next few years with the goal of establishing a permanent human presence on the moon.
Construction of the Viper — the volatile — that probes the polar probe rover — began several years ago, and the highly complex robotic vehicle was nearly finished when NASA announced on July 17 that it had decided to kill it off. The company said the move was necessary due to past cost overruns, delays in launch dates and risks of future cost overruns.
However, the claim has been rejected by surprised and angry scientists who say the rover could have played a key role in opening up the moon to human settlement.
„Frankly, the agency’s decision beggars belief,” said Clive Neal, a lunar scientist professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
„Viper is a fundamental mission on many fronts, and its cancellation undermines NASA’s entire lunar exploration program for the next decade. As straightforward as that. Canceling Viper makes no sense.
Ben Fernando of Johns Hopkins University, one of the authors of the open letter to Congress, supported this view. „A team of 500 people dedicated their lives to developing the Viper and now it has been canceled for no good reason,” he said. the observer Last week.
„I think fortunately Congress is taking this issue very seriously, and they have the authority to tell NASA to continue with this program. I hope they step in.
Several water missions to the moon are planned in the next few years. However, most involve observing the lunar surface from space or landing a single probe that digs into the ice at a single, fixed location.
Ian Crawford, Birkbeck Professor of Planetary Science and Astrophysics, University of London, said: „The main advantage of Viper is that it can move around the lunar soil in different promising locations.
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Astronomers have long suspected that ice — brought by comets and asteroids — exists in permanently shadowed craters near the moon’s south poles, a claim strongly supported in 2009 when NASA deliberately crashed a Centaur rocket into the Gabius crater.
By examining the resulting debris, scientists concluded that ice may make up 5% of the soil there. „China, Japan, India and Europe all have plans to have water on the moon, but now the US seems to have given up,” Crawford added. „It’s very intriguing.”
Scientists point out that ice and other material brought to the Moon by comets or asteroids can be in pristine condition and provide scientists with a history of the inner solar system and the processes that shaped it over millions or billions of years. into the past. „There’s an incredible scientific treasure trove out there that needs to be explored,” Neal added.
When NASA announced its decision to abandon Viper, the space agency said it planned to disassemble and reuse its components for other lunar missions — unless other space companies or agencies offered to take over the program. More than a dozen teams have expressed interest in capturing the Viper, a NASA spokeswoman said the observer Last week. However, it is not yet clear whether these companies want the Viper as a complete craft or as a source of components.
„We don’t know how practical or serious these offers are,” Fernando said. „NASA keeps saying they have to cancel programs because of budget issues, but why did they choose such an important mission to begin making those cuts?”