VIPER Rover Partnership Opportunity: Request for Information

NASA is seeking interest from U.S. communities in partnering with NASA to conduct a Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission on the Moon that addresses some or all of NASA’s science objectives for VIPER, and could include other NASA exploration objectives, as well as any partner objectives. NASA would contribute the existing VIPER rover as is. Partner(s) would start with the existing VIPER rover and be expected to complete any remaining systems level testing, arrange for the integration and successful landing on the Moon, conduct a science/exploration campaign, and openly disseminate science data. U.S. domestically based partners would also be expected to provide other resources required to complete the mission from the hardware’s current state and to reimburse NASA for use of any NASA capabilities (including but not limited to any additional testing and anomaly resolution activities, payload preparation and processing support, or science/instrument/operations teams support) needed to successfully conduct the mission. The intent is that any partnership have minimal to no additional cost to NASA. If NASA chooses to pursue this path, partners may not disassemble and use instruments/parts of VIPER separately from a VIPER mission.