Moon South Pole Landing Site for NASA VIPER Mission to be Revealed Monday
Known to contain molecular water and other useful volatiles per LRO & Chandrayaan / Moon Mineralogy Mapper data, lunar South Pole region exploration is focus of CLPS mission sequence with Intuitive Machines to deliver Prime-1 consisting of Trident 1m drill / MSolo off-the-shelf mass spectrometer to area in Q4 2022 under US$47M contract, Astrobotic to deliver VIPER autonomous rover with same instrument suite late 2023 under $199.5M contract; Landing site selection may have profound implications for human lunar base buildout, with Shackleton, Cabeus, Nobile Craters, Leibniz Plateau, Malapert Mountain being strong contenders
Astrobotic now employs 150+ from Pittsburgh HQ, from which Peregrine lander (100kg capacity) to be controlled as it descends onto and operates from Lacus Mortis in 2022; AON3D of Montreal to supply additive 3D printed components, funded by $11.5M investment round; CAES of Arlington providing avionics flight control processor; Griffin lander (500kg capacity) to deliver VIPER / Neutron Spectrometer System by 2024; PRISM-identified science missions 1A to Reiner Gamma, 1B to Schrödinger crater in 2024; 2A with 6° of MSP, 2B to Gruthuisen Domes in 2025 yet to be awarded to CLPS providers
Partnering With Crowdsourcing Platform Wevolver, 
NASA SBIR / SBTT Awards $750K/EA To 6 Businesses With Moon Focus: Paragon Space Development Corporation Of Tucson AZ (ISRU Collector Of Ice); Lunar Resources Of Houston TX (Molten Regolith Electrolysis Oxygen Capturing, Filtering & Storage System); Advanced Cooling Technologies Of Lancaster PA (Thermal Management System For Lunar Ice Miners); CesiumAstro Of Austin TX (Commercial Communications & Sensing System); Flight Works Of Irvine CA (High Performance Pump-fed Lunar Transfer Stage For Small Launchers); Blueshift Of Broomfield CO (Modeling Rover Interactions With Lunar Regolith In PSRs)
CLPS Providers Astrobotic And Intuitive Machines Striving For Q4 Lunar Landings With Peregrine And Nova-C Landers; Emulated Interface Pairing Of NASA Water Detectors MSolo, NSS, And NIRVSS With Peregrine Successful, Instruments To Fly On Both Mission One (2021, Set To Launch On ULA Vulcan Centaur) And Rover Delivery Mission VIPER (2023); Intuitive Machines Delivering 5 NASA / 5 Commercial Payloads During IM-1 (2021) And IM-2 / TRIDENT Drill PRIME-1 (2022), Both Riding On SpaceX Falcon 9, As Is MASTEN XL-1 Lander For Task Order 19-C (2022)
Systems Of Moon Excavation Are Focus Of Break The Ice Lunar Challenge, A Centennial Challenge Directed By KSC And MSFC With US$500k Phase 1 Funds, $4.5M Allocated To Phase 2; NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase 3 Sponsored R&D Led By William ‘Red’ Whittaker On 15-kg / 1-Lunar Day Lifespan PitRanger Mini Rover Designed To Create HD Images Of Lava Tube Interiors Via Aggregation; With Intentions Of Stimulating Cislunar Economy, Masten, Lunar Outpost, ispace Europe & Japan Win Bids To Transport / Sell Moon Samples
Astrobotic, A Private NewSpace Enterprise With Carnegie Mellon Origins, Has New Home Located In Historic Manchester Neighborhood Of Pittsburgh; Renovation Of 4,366-m2 Former Post Office Reportedly 1/3 Complete, Containing Space For Fabrication, Laboratories, Administration; Further Construction To Include Drone / Rover Testing Areas; US$79.5M Peregrine Mission Launching July 2021 To Lacus Mortis Area (44.96°N, 25.62°E) Of Moon Will Be Controlled From 1016 North Lincoln Ave, As Will 2 Moon South Pole Missions: $5.6M MoonRanger Rover (Carried By XL-1 Masten Lander Dec 2022) And $199.5M Griffin (To Deliver VIPER 2023)