NASA announces lunar rover that will scour the Moon's south pole in search of water and ice by 2022

NASA says it will put a robotic rover on the moon that can aid the agency in its search for lunar water. The four-wheeled vehicle, which NASA has dubbed the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, will be the size of a golf-cart and use various science instruments to probe the moon's surface for evidence of water and ice. VIPER is set to be delivered to the moon's surface by December 2022 and once there it will collect 100 days worth of data designed to map potential water sources. NASA's VIPER rover (rendering above) will explore the moon for water and help to guide an ongoing plan to return humans to the lunar surface A mobility'testbed' (pictured above) is was created to evaluate the rover's mobility system. It's toolkit for detecting water will include a drill able to bore beneath the surface and a spectrometer than can detect moisture.