Terry Fong, NASA, "The NASA Volatiles Inspecting Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) Mission"

Speaker: Terry Fong, Chief Roboticist, NASA Ames Research Center
Title: The NASA Volatiles Inspecting Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) Mission
Date and Time: Friday, June 7 at 12:00 PM
Location: Tech B211 and Zoom
Center for Robotics and Biosystems
Northwestern University
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 will land at the South Pole of the Moon and spend approximately 100-days mapping and surveying four different "ice stability regions" to understand the nature and distribution of these "in-situ resources". The information returned by VIPER will help determine how we can harvest the Moon's resources for future human space exploration.​
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VIPER will be the first-ever resource mapping mission on another celestial body. The in-situ resource maps of the Moon developed with VIPER data will mark a critical step forward in NASA's Artemis program to establish a sustainable human presence on the surface of the Moon. Determining the distribution, physical state and composition of water ice deposits will also help us understand the sources of the lunar polar water, giving us insight into distribution and origin of water and other volatiles across the solar system.​
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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 design, engineering and operational challenges.​
Biography:
Dr. Terry Fong is the Chief Roboticist at the NASA Ames Research Center and the deputy rover manager for VIPER. Terry previously led development of the Astrobee free-flying robot, which was deployed to the International Space Station in 2019. Terry has published more than 150 papers in space and field robotics, human-robot interaction, virtual reality user interfaces, and planetary mapping. Terry received his B.S. and M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT and his Ph.D. in Robotics from CMU.