NASA’s well on its way to returning to the Moon, and the space agency wants to take you with. If you missed out on NASA’s astronaut applications earlier this month, there’s still a way you can technically get to the moon: by putting your name on VIPER. Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER for short, is the Artemis program’s lunar rover and NASA is allowing anyone interested to etch their name onto the rover. You can put your name on VIPER on NASA’s website dedicated to the rover.
VIPER is expected to launch and land at the Moon’s South Pole later this year, capturing data about ice and water found on the lunar surface. Right now, the mission is expected to last at least 100 days.
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“Thanks to past missions such as satellites orbiting the Moon or impacting its surface, we know there is ice at the lunar poles. But to be able to use it one day, we need to learn more about that water – up close and personal,” NASA says of the rover. “VIPER will roam the Moon using its three instruments and a 3.28-foot (1-meter) drill to detect and analyze various lunar soil environments at a range of depths and temperatures. The rover will venture into permanently shadowed craters, some of the coldest spots in the solar system, where ice reserves have endured for billions of years.”
It adds, “VIPER’s instruments will also make important science measurements. Determining the distribution, physical state, and composition of these ice deposits will help us understand the sources of the lunar polar water, giving us insight into the distribution and origin of water and other volatiles across the solar system.”
The next mission for the Artemis program is Artemis II, which will be a crewed mission that flies around the lunar surface. That’s currently scheduled to launch in September 2025. Artemis II is expected to last around 10 days, and will follow a similar flight path to that of Artemis I late last year. The program and crew is currently set to launch to space next November, giving them nearly two full years to prepare for the mission. While those on the crew won’t return to the lunar surface—something being saved for Artemis III in 2026—they will be the humans to travel furthest in space since Apollo 13 in 1970.
