Intuitive Machines is looking to take over a four-wheeled lunar rover after NASA called off its planned trip to the Moon due to budget constraints.
The Houston-based company is putting together a response to a request from NASA seeking interest from organizations that would want to partner with the space agency on sending its rover to the Moon, company officials revealed in a recent earnings call. NASA would provide its water-hunting robot as is, and the selected company or organization would do all the rest to land the mission on the Moon and address some or all of its science objectives.
VIPER, or Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, was designed to find and study water ice on the Moon’s south pole. The $450 million mission was scheduled for launch in September 2025 on board Astrobotic’s Griffin lander, which was meant to deliver the rover to the Moon under a Commercial Lunar Payload Services task order. The mission suffered several supply chain delays and NASA recently decided to cancel VIPER’s lunar journey out of fear that it would disrupt other commercial payload missions to the Moon.
NASA, when it first broke the news, revealed that it would disassemble the VIPER rover and use its parts for future missions. The decision, however, sparked outrage from the science community over the loss of the precious robot. In response, NASA abruptly put together a call for organizations to take over its lunar robot and send it to the Moon.
Intuitive Machines stepped up to the plate; it’s currently working with other companies, research organizations, and international partners to respond to NASA’s request for information, SpaceNews reported based on the earnings call. “Our position there is that VIPER science is important to lunar scientists and the future of the Artemis program, and it’s very important in terms of prospecting for volatiles and entrained water ice in the soil,” Steve Altemus, chief executive of Intuitive Machines, is quoted as saying on the call.
The company is no stranger to the Moon. Intuitive Machines launched its Odysseus lander in February as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. The lunar lander managed to touchdown on the lunar surface, but its landing wasn’t so smooth. Odysseus likely got one of its legs caught during its descent, causing it to tip over on its side and possibly end up laying on a rock.
Hopefully, it’ll have better luck with VIPER. During the call, Intuitive Machines officials revealed that the lunar rover could ride on board its upcoming Nova-D lander (which is currently still in development). The rover would then launch sometime in late 2027.
NASA has done most of the work building the robot, although the space agency has made it clear it will not spend any more money on its canceled lunar mission. “The intent is that any partnership have minimal to no additional cost to NASA,” the space agency wrote in its request for information. Additionally, should Intuitive Machines be selected to take over VIPER, NASA wants its partner to reimburse it for of any capabilities, including additional testing of the rover, payload preparation, and science team support.
NASA has turned to the private sector for help before. In 2018, the space agency called off the Lunar Resources Prospector (LRP), another lunar rover with similar objectives. However, after rolling out its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, NASA promised to fly LRP on a future private mission to the Moon.
The news of VIPER’s cancellation was equally disappointing, but hopefully both missions still get to touchdown on the lunar surface in the future.
More: How Small Teams at Intuitive Machines Are Solving Big Lunar Challenges
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