2024-01-08 21:15:26
NASA invites the public to submit their name to the surface of the Moon aboard the agency’s first robotic lunar rover, the Volatile Research Polar Exploration Vehicle (VIPER). This rover will embark on a mission to the lunar south pole to unravel the mysteries of water on the Moon and better understand the environment where NASA plans to take the first woman and the first person of color with its Artemis program.
As part of the “Submit Your Name with VIPER” campaign, NASA will accept names that are received by March 15, 2024 at 11:59 pm Eastern Time. Once received, the agency will take the names and attach them to the rover.
To add your name, visit this website.
This website also allows participants to create and download a virtual souvenir—a VIPER mission boarding pass with their name on it—to commemorate the experience. Participants are encouraged to share their requests on social media using the hashtag #SubmitYourName.
“With VIPER, we are going to study and explore parts of the Moon’s surface that no one has been to before and, with this campaign, we are inviting people to be part of that risky but rewarding journey,” said Nicola Fox, administrator associate in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. “Just think about it: our names will travel with VIPER as it navigates the rugged terrain of the lunar south pole and collects valuable data that will help us better understand the history of the Moon and the environment to which we plan to send the Artemis astronauts” .
This campaign is like other NASA projects that have allowed tens of millions of people to submit their names to travel on various spacecraft to Mars and the agency’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission. It builds on the agency’s long tradition of delivering inspiring messages on spacecraft that have explored our solar system and beyond.
Artist’s recreation of the Artemis robotic lunar rover. (Image: NASA/Daniel Rutter)
“Our VIPER mission is revolutionary,” said Daniel Andrews, VIPER project manager at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California. “It is the first mission of its kind, and will expand our understanding of where lunar resources could be harvested to support a long-term human presence on the Moon.”
In late 2024, Astrobotic Technologies’ Griffin One Mission is scheduled to deliver VIPER to the lunar surface after its launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Once there, VIPER will rely on its solar panels and batteries for its around 100-day mission where it must survive extreme temperatures and challenging lighting conditions, while providing power to a suite of scientific instruments that are designed to gather data on the characteristics and concentrations of lunar ice and other possible resources.
NASA’s VIPER rover transport is part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative for the Artemis program. With CLPS, as well as human exploration near the lunar south pole, NASA will establish a cadence of long-term lunar missions in preparation for sending the first astronauts to Mars.
This rover is part of the Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program (LDEP), managed by the Scientific Missions Directorate at the agency’s headquarters and is executed through the Exploration Science Strategy and Integration Office . In addition to managing the mission, NASA Ames leads the mission’s scientific research, systems engineering, real-time surface operations of the rover, and its flight software. The rover’s hardware is being designed and built by NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, while instruments are provided by NASA’s Ames Center, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and commercial partner Honeybee Robotics in Altadena, California. (Source: NASA)
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