WASHINGTON — Astrobotic has signed a contract with SpaceX for the launch of its Griffin lunar lander, carrying a NASA lunar rover, on a Falcon Heavy in 2023.Astrobotic announced April 13 that it selected SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy for its Griffin Mission 1 lunar lander mission, which will deliver the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) spacecraft to the south pole of the moon in late 2023. Astrobotic won a NASA competition through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program last year to transport VIPER on its Griffin lunar lander.
We're going to the Moon again - this time with @SpaceX ! Falcon Heavy will carry our Griffin lunar lander to the Moon in late 2023 along with NASA’s water-hunting Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER). 🌙
… going to moon very soon
Meaning of Elon’s tweet at the weekend is now clearhttps://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1380781539647053826Quote… going to moon very soon
Quote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 04/13/2021 03:03 pmMeaning of Elon’s tweet at the weekend is now clearQuote… going to moon very soonI doubt that is what he meant. SpaceX isn't going to the Moon, Astrobiotic is. Besides, a number of other CLPS missions are going to the Moon with a SpaceX launch vehicle.
Meaning of Elon’s tweet at the weekend is now clearQuote… going to moon very soon
As a side note, I am guessing this FH will have a regular fairing since it has to fit within Astrobotic's $199.5M budget for the mission.
Quote from: yg1968 on 04/13/2021 04:41 pmAs a side note, I am guessing this FH will have a regular fairing since it has to fit within Astrobotic's $199.5M budget for the mission.It most probably will have a short one because I seriously doubt they are volume constrained in a high energy, non-aerobreaking mission. But the price difference shouldn’t be too high. Even if the long fairing requires VI, the VIF will already be paid for by DoD and NASA.
Quote from: baldusi on 04/13/2021 08:09 pmQuote from: yg1968 on 04/13/2021 04:41 pmAs a side note, I am guessing this FH will have a regular fairing since it has to fit within Astrobotic's $199.5M budget for the mission.It most probably will have a short one because I seriously doubt they are volume constrained in a high energy, non-aerobreaking mission. But the price difference shouldn’t be too high. Even if the long fairing requires VI, the VIF will already be paid for by DoD and NASA.Maybe the contract required reusing the boosters and a payload fairing. Only expending an upper stage would make for a cheap lunar mission.
If I had to guess what the booster recovery profile could be, given Griffin/VIPER is a small payload, the side boosters could land at LZ-1 and LZ-2 while the center core is expended.Just my opinion.
“It’s kind of a short and stout lander,” Gillies said. “It’s as wide as the fairing possibly allows. It’s got legs that hang down below the separation plane, which is different than a … satellite. In terms of height, with VIPER, it’s a few meters tall.”
NASA’s first lunar mobile robot, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) has passed its Critical Design Review (CDR), a critical milestone indicating that the rover has a completed design and has been approved by an independent NASA review board. The mission can now turn its attention to the construction of the rover itself, which will launch on a SpaceX Falcon-Heavy rocket for delivery to the Moon by Astrobotic’s Griffin lander under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.
“The VIPER team has been focused on completing the design of this clever little mission, bringing us to this culminating review,” said Daniel Andrews, VIPER project manager. “With an approved design, the team now looks toward turning that design into real hardware, bringing VIPER to life in 2022.”Construction of the rover will begin in late 2022 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, while the rover flight software and navigation system design will take place at Ames. Astrobotic will receive the complete rover with its scientific instruments in mid-2023 in preparation for launch later that year.
NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative allows rapid acquisition of lunar delivery services from American companies for payloads that advance capabilities for science, exploration or commercial development of the Moon. Through CLPS, NASA contracted Astrobotic of Pittsburgh to deliver the agency’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the lunar surface in search of ice and other potential resources. The measurements returned by VIPER will provide insight into the origin and distribution of water on the Moon and help determine how the Moon’s resources could be harvested for future human space exploration. While VIPER was originally scheduled for lunar delivery by Astrobotic in November 2023, NASA has requested the Astrobotic and VIPER mission teams to adjust VIPER’s delivery to the Moon’s South Pole to November 2024.NASA’s decision to pursue a 2024 delivery date results from the agency’s request to Astrobotic for additional ground testing of the company’s Griffin lunar lander, which will deliver VIPER to the lunar surface through CLPS. The additional tests aim to reduce the overall risk to VIPER’s delivery to the Moon. To complete the additional NASA-mandated tests of the Griffin lunar lander, an additional $67.8 million has been added to Astrobotic’s CLPS contract, which now totals $320.4 million. “Through CLPS, NASA has tasked U.S. companies to perform a very challenging technological feat – to successfully land and operate on the Moon,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “VIPER is NASA’s largest and most sophisticated science payload to be delivered to the Moon through CLPS, and we've implemented enhanced lander testing for this particular CLPS surface delivery.”CLPS is a key part of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration plans. The science and technology payloads sent to the Moon’s surface will help lay the foundation for human missions on and around the Moon. The agency has made seven task order awards to CLPS providers for lunar deliveries between in the early 2020s with more delivery awards expected through 2028.