Astrobotic Technology has found a replacement rover to fly on its Griffin moon lander’s first-ever mission. The original VIPER rover was canceled by NASA last summer, leaving a space open on the Griffin-1 mission scheduled to launch later this year.
Astrolab, a California-based company, has partnered with Astrobotic to deploy the FLIP (Flex Lunar Innovation Platform) rover on the Griffin-1 mission. FLIP is a robotic four-wheeled vehicle that can conduct exploration work and test technologies for Astrolab’s larger FLEX commercial vehicle.
The partnership aims to advance humanity’s future on the moon, demonstrating critical technologies for lunar rovers like FLIP and FLEX. The FLIP rover will gather insights into how it operates in real lunar conditions, helping to advance the commercial FLEX vehicle’s capabilities.
Astrobotic is set to launch its second lunar mission with Griffin-1, following a failed attempt by its smaller Peregrine moon lander last year. NASA’s VIPER rover is still planned for the moon, and the agency has asked private companies to partner on its ice-hunting mission near the lunar south pole.
Source: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/moon-rovers/private-flip-rover-replaces-nasas-viper-on-astrobotic-moon-mission