GRASP on Robotics is an inaugural series of talks hosted by the GRASP Laboratory. GRASP leverages academic, research, and industry connections to deliver a set of high class tech talks with the mission of providing technical topics and meaningful discussions.
Join the live-stream here Fridays from 10:30am -11:45am followed by a Q&A panel between our speaker, faculty, and students until 11:45am.
Spring 2025 GRASP on Robotics: Terry Fong, NASA Ames Research Center, “The NASA Volatiles Inspecting Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) Mission”
This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Wu and Chen and virtual attendance on Zoom.
ABSTRACT
The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) is a NASA mission designed to explore the extreme environment of the Moon in search of water ice. VIPER is intended to land at the South Pole of the Moon and spend approximately 100-days mapping and surveying four different “ice stability regions”. Determining the distribution, physical state and composition of water ice deposits will help increase understanding the sources of lunar polar water, as well as providing insight into the distribution and origin of volatiles across the solar system.
In this talk, I will present an overview of the VIPER mission, the rover’s design, lunar surface simulation, and mission operations. During VIPER’s exploration of the Moon, the rover will endure extreme temperature conditions, dynamic lighting and complex terrain, while near-real-time rover driving will present new planetary mission operational challenges.