{"id":196686,"date":"2025-12-17T15:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/196686\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T15:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:24:12","slug":"nasas-viper-mission-gets-vital-help-from-sandia-news-releases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/196686\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s VIPER mission gets vital help from Sandia \u2013 News Releases"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Karen<\/a>Karen Rogers, left, Orlando Abeyta and Leticia Mercado discuss the testing of the VIPER rover at the Superfuge, while Chad Heitman, right, works on sensors for the test at Sandia National Laboratories. (Photo by Craig Fritz) Click on the thumbnail for a high-resolution image. <\/p>\n

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. \u2014 NASA\u2019s VIPER rover, designed to map water on the moon, has reached another major milestone with help from Sandia National Laboratories and its one-of-a-kind testing capabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve built a rover that is designed to go and prospect for water on the moon, but the vehicle must be certified for mission,\u201d said Dave Petri, NASA VIPER system integration and test lead. \u201cWe need to be sure its structure is properly designed and built to survive the mission, including the launch environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandia\u2019s Superfuge<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Sandia\u2019s Large Centrifuge, or Superfuge, came in. A facility like none other in the world, the 29-foot underground centrifuge can subject test items to inertial forces up to 300 Gs \u2014 300 times the force of the Earth\u2019s gravity \u2014 and can accommodate a 16,000-pound payload capacity while integrating vibration, spin, thermal and shock environments simultaneously, mimicking flight conditions from launch to reentry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Toby<\/a>Toby Gomez, left, and Jason King work on sensor connections while the VIPER rover is suspended in a cage at the end of the Superfuge arm at Sandia National Laboratories. (Photo by Dave Linneman) Click on the thumbnail for a high-resolution image. <\/p>\n

For NASA, the challenge with testing the VIPER rover was its size and design. The VIPER team considered multiple test methods and facilities, including a drop tower or rocket sled, but Sandia\u2019s test abilities stood out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a 1,000-pound article and it has to be oriented in a number of ways throughout the testing process,\u201d said Ben Quasius, VIPER lead stress analyst. \u201cIn many cases we would do a static qualification test where we use pistons to push on certain locations of the article to test flex of the body, but there are sensitive things in the way. You have solar panels in prime locations and a drill in the middle that can\u2019t be compromised during flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s team spent three weeks testing the rover at Sandia\u2019s centrifuge facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is not another machine in the world that has the capabilities we do here,\u201d said Orlando Abeyta, Sandia operations engineer at the Superfuge. \u201cWe have tested weapons systems, components of weapons systems, aerospace tanks, and even the Jupiter fuel tank for NASA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Freddie<\/a>Freddie Martinez figures out electrical connections for testing of the VIPER rover at the Superfuge at Sandia National Laboratories. (Photo by David Lienemann) Click on thumbnail for a high-resolution image. <\/p>\n

What a team<\/p>\n

Abeyta said he takes pride in the work they do. \u201cThat is what I like about working here. Even though the centrifuge is just turning, each test is different. That is what keeps me interested in being here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Superfuge team spent months preparing for the NASA tests. Their job goes far beyond running the centrifuge. They engineer each test, determine how to load the article, connect all the required instrumentation and what angles to test at. They also have to troubleshoot when things don\u2019t go as planned. On the VIPER rover, there were 48 different points of data to be collected and analyzed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can model anything you want, but until you put it on that arm you don\u2019t know what you are going to get,\u201d Abeyta said. \u201cAs a centrifuge operator, anyone can push a button, but you need to know what is happening when you push that button \u2014 if it doesn\u2019t work, then what? That\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned to do here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Test lead Leticia Mercado, who holds a master\u2019s degree mechanical engineering with a concentration in space systems, called the rover testing a dream come true.<\/p>\n

A native of Farmington, New Mexico, she grew up planning to leave her home state but after an internship at Sandia, she found her passion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked at the Drop Towers and the Mechanical Shock Complex and then this became my home facility,\u201d Mercado said. \u201cPersonally, I am just excited to be part of this test and to lead it. I have such a unique job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Orlando<\/a>Orlando Abeyta works on wiring prior to placing a cage around and attaching the VIPER rover to the arm of the Superfuge at Sandia National Laboratories. (Photo by Craig Fritz) Click on the thumbnail for a high-resolution image. <\/p>\n

The VIPER Mission<\/p>\n

The Sandia team is eager to see the VIPER rover head to the moon, but will have to wait until late 2027. <\/p>\n

NASA announced in September that it had chosen Blue Origin of Kent, Washington to deliver the rover to the moon\u2019s South Pole using a Blue Moon MK1 lander, which is in production.<\/p>\n

Once there, the rover will be charged with making a water concentration map of the moon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know there is water on the moon, but we don\u2019t know the concentrations of water,\u201d Petri said. \u201cIt\u2019s like prospecting for gold here on Earth. You need enough concentration for it to be worthwhile to mine. It\u2019s the same with the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rover is armed with three scientific instruments: a mass spectrometer, a near-infrared spectrometer and a neutron spectrometer. Those instruments can detect water volatiles, particles that evaporate, or boil off, when heated.<\/p>\n

The rover also has a drill capable of reaching one meter beneath the surface to pull up samples of any existing water remnants.<\/p>\n

The goal is for the rover to explore the moon\u2019s South Pole, where permanently shadowed craters don\u2019t experience boil off and have a higher probability of containing large concentrations of water.<\/p>\n

The science could be groundbreaking, and Sandia\u2019s team said they are proud to have played a role in it, just as they are of every test they\u2019ve played a role in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a compliment from a manager for the VIPER testing saying they had never had an experience like they did here,\u201d Abeyta said. \u201cIf something happens, we have an answer for it. We know how this equipment works. There are so many great people here, everybody helps each other and that\u2019s what makes this place work so well. On Sunday nights I am excited to come to work on Monday to see what I get to do next.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Additional GoPro and NASA video of the VIPER testing available: Email request to kdquint@sandia.gov<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karen Rogers, left, Orlando Abeyta and Leticia Mercado discuss the testing of the VIPER rover at the Superfuge,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4748,61,60,6185,91,104784,104785,104786,82,19312],"class_list":["post-196686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-exploration","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-national-laboratories","tag-sandia","tag-sandia-national-laboratories","tag-science","tag-viper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}