So the side-mounted solar panels shown in the artwork make sense. But it will be designed to withstand 96 hours of darkness. Because VIPER will land so close to the lunar south pole, it should never experience the bitterly cold, two-week darkness that characterizes the lunar night in more-equatorial regions. VIPER will work for about 100 days, according to the statement, addressing one of the agency's key goals at the moon: to develop machinery that can work even in the dark. We'll still have to wait for a better answer to be certain. The proposed non-rechargeability may have been a ploy to try to put pressure on ASRG development or selection. Mission Concept Study also mentions a 4.4 day lifetime non-rechargeable battery and contrasts it with a 140 watt ASRG (radioisotope supplied Stirling engine powered electrical generator). This 2006 Lunar Polar Volatiles Explorer (LPVE) However I am not certain that this is correct. The following paragraph in 's NASA Will Launch a Lunar VIPER to Hunt Moon Water in 2022 seems to summarize how VIPER will operate. Hopefully a primary source can be found and at that time someone can post a thorough answer. My question was inspired by a confusing and potentially self-inconsistent blurb in a popular news outlet, but I'm looking for an authoritative and reliable resolution to this conflict. Please cite authoritative sources and not just a blurb in a popular news outlet. Question: What is the VIPER lunar rover's 100-day power source, and why can't it recharge it using its solar panels? Yet the image there and in the 's Moon-to-Mars feature page it links to New VIPER Lunar Rover to Map Water Ice on the Moon show solar panels, suggesting that if the hundred-day power source is rechargeable, it could be recharged by going back to wherever those obvious solar panels were used. has spent on the Moon’s surface in a long time - although China has for the last few years been actively deploying rovers all over the place. VIPER is a limited-time mission operating at the poles means there’s no sunlight to harvest with solar panels, so the rover will carry all the power it needs to last about a hundred days there. TechCrunch's NASA’s VIPER lunar rover will hunt water on the Moon in 2022 says: Update 2: NASA’s Artemis Rover to Land Near Nobile Region of Moon’s South Pole which is informative here Update 1: NASA wants ideas for keeping Moon missions powered in the dark
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