The NASA VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) prototype successfully completed its lander exit test. This proves the rover’s ability to drive off the Astrobotic Griffin lunar lander and onto the Moon’s surface.
This operation, called an egress, takes hours and is one of the most critical parts of VIPER’s proposed 100-day mission. If the off-ramps onto the Moon are extremely steep or tilted due to the the uneven terrain, things could get even trickier. By rigorously testing prototype MGRU3 (Moon Gravitation Representative Unit 3) down the lander’s ramps, engineers now better understand how the rover would perform in both normal and unplanned scenarios. NASA plans to operate VIPER on the western edge of Nobile crater at the Moon’s south pole. It will travers various kinds of soil environments affected by light and temperature in complete darkness, occasional light as well as constant sunlight.
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Through this series, we’ve tested all of the ‘bounding’ cases for VIPER’s egress on the Moon, This included the worst-case high-pitch scenario using the steepest – and scariest – ramps, the worst-case roll scenario using the most uneven ramps, and the worst-case scenario with pitch and roll combined. We validated these test cases with MGRU3 to be sure VIPER can do it on the Moon,” said Jasper Wolfe, VIPER egress test lead at Ames.
