NASA is offering a live broadcast of the assembly of VIPER, its first robotic Moon rover, from the Johnson Space Centre in Houston.
How to watch NASA VIPER Moon rover assembly live right here
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NASA’s Surface Segment Integration and Testing Facility at the Johnson Space Centre is now the stage for a unique event: the live assembly of the VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) Moon rover.
The event will broadcast live on Wednesday, from 22:00 CAT and you can watch it live right here.
This event allows the public to witness the construction of NASA’s first robotic rover destined for the Moon.
NASA’s Ames Research Centre in California’s Silicon Valley is hosting watch parties and interactive webchats in both English and Spanish.
These sessions are designed to engage the public and answer questions about the VIPER mission.
Scheduled approximately once a month from November 2023 through January 2024, these events offer an inside look at the rover’s progress.
VIPER’s mission, set to commence in late 2024, will explore the lunar South Pole. The rover aims to investigate permanently shadowed areas, shedding light on the mysteries of lunar water.
This groundbreaking mission will provide crucial data for future lunar exploration and Artemis missions.
The VIPER rover, weighing approximately 1 000 pounds, is currently in the assembly phase. Individual components like science instruments, lights, and wheels have been pre-assembled and tested.
The upcoming months will see the final assembly and testing phases before the rover is shipped to the Astrobotic Payload Processing Facility in Florida in mid-2024.
Once on the Moon, VIPER will land atop Mons Mouton and begin its scientific exploration. Equipped with a drill and three science instruments, the rover will analyse the distribution and concentration of water ice and other volatiles.
This research is crucial for understanding the preservation of these resources in lunar soil and their cosmic origins.
The VIPER mission is managed by NASA Ames, which also leads the mission’s science, systems engineering, real-time rover surface operations, and flight software.
The rover vehicle is designed and built by NASA’s Johnson Space Centre, with instruments provided by Ames, Kennedy Space Centre, and Honeybee Robotics.
The mission is supported by NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which facilitates the delivery of science and technology payloads to the Moon.