That's unfortunate, this project has puttered around the edges for a very long time and should have gotten a shot.
In other news, Blue Origin and SpaceX have both agreed to have a look around for water when they land on the South pole in the 2020-2022 time frame.They'll report what they find back to NASA so that an appropriate crewed mission can be designed for SLS in the late 2020's.Seriously, the impending presence of New Glenn and BFR should be having a big effect on unmanned mission planning, and I'm not sure it's sunk in yet at NASA. There are several other missions happening before RP's planned landing in 2022, including some from the US and some from other countries, perhaps more than enough to make RP a lot less important.
Here's the relevant sentence. Here's hoping Bridenstine can start on the right foot by getting this decision reversed.
We’re committed to lunar exploration @NASA. Resource Prospector instruments will go forward in an expanded lunar surface campaign. More landers. More science. More exploration. More prospectors. More commercial partners. Ad astra!
Here is another article on itwww.theverge.com/2018/4/27/17287154/nasa-lunar-surface-robotic-mission-resource-prospector-moon?utm_campaign=lorengrush&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
It has been discussed for a teleoperated sample return on the far side and could certainly apply to other samples oif desired.
The 5 Lunar XPrize finalists were all progressing towards small landers and rovers, and had demonstrated technology. https://lunar.xprize.org/news/blog/important-update-google-lunar-xprize
A bit OT, but is there any chance that, to justify Orion/SLS, a lunar sample return will be designed leave the sample in lunar orbit (at least 500 km high) to be collected by a crew? Some story about "why develop a separate re-entry vehicle when you've got Orion" suggests itself. Kinda like Asteroid Redirect without the asteroid.
Why do sample returns at all. Let's go to the surface and set up lab facilities in situ.