As the VIPER team is seeing this fast-paced, pandemic-strained year come to a close, I’d like to reflect on all the great work this hard-working team has accomplished in 2021.
We started the year, like everyone else, thinking we’d be done with the pandemic; however, COVID-19 and lingering supply chain issues from industry and suppliers have forced us to continue to be agile and adaptable. The VIPER team has done an admirable job planning and replanning as these realities reveal themselves, and we will continue to adapt as challenges come our way.
Over the course of the year, the VIPER team accomplished several milestones, including announcing the Nobile region as VIPER’s mission area, building a full-scale prototype made up of aluminum and 3D-printed parts, conducting a second round of egress testing, and moving from working the preliminary design from 2020 into a completed design in 2021. As is the case for all one-of-a-kind missions, we hit roadblocks along the way of design maturation, and had to make trades of priorities against the backdrop of risk. I’m very pleased that we were able to do this within NASA’s requirements, and against our cost and schedule framework. Despite what the pandemic has thrown at us, mission development largely remains on track.
I’d like to express my thanks to this exceptional VIPER team and the stakeholder community who are supporting our work. I hope the team and all the fans of this remarkable mission are able to take some time in the coming weeks to enjoy friends and family over the holidays.
Go VIPER!
– Dan Andrews, VIPER Project Manager