Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Title: The NASA Volatiles Inspecting Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) Mission
Speaker: Terry Fong (NASA)
Date: Monday, January 30, 2026

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 robot's design, lunar surface simulation, and interactive mission operations. During VIPER's exploration of the Moon, the rover will endure extreme temperature conditions (40K to 300K), dynamic lighting and complex terrain, while near-real-time rover driving will present new planetary mission operational challenges. VIPER is scheduled to launch to the Moon in August 2027 on-board Blue Origin's "New Glenn" rocket and "Blue Moon Mark 1" (MK1) lunar lander.

Bio: Terry Fong is NASA's Senior Scientist for Autonomous Systems and the Chief Roboticist at the NASA Ames Research Center. Terry is also the lead Rover Driver and former deputy manager for NASA's VIPER lunar rover mission. Terry previously led development of the Astrobee free-flying robot, which was installed on the Space Station in 2019. Terry has published more than 175 papers in space and field robotics, human-robot interaction, virtual reality, and planetary mapping. Terry received his B.S. and M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT and his Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.

This video is closed captioned.