NASA's VIPER rover to look for water, resources on moon

NASA's ambitious lunar program Artemis will send the agency's first mobile robot to the moon in late 2023.

Using the first-ever headlights on a lunar rover, VIPER will explore the lunar South Pole and "permanently" dark regions of the moon – some of the coldest areas in the solar system. In a recent release, NASA wrote that the mid-size rover would need to work quickly to "maneuver around the extreme swings in light and dark," and that it would explore the craters using a "specialized set of wheels and suspension system to cover a variety of inclines and soil types."