¶The other CLPS landers. NASA’s CLPS program contracts with companies to deliver payloads to the Moon with the goal of bringing down lunar exploration costs through commercial competition. NASA’s assumed cost is one million dollars per kilogram to the lunar surface, with the expectation that not all missions will be successful. In additional to VIPER, there are currently three other active delivery contracts: Intuitive Machines and their Nova-C lander in 2021, Astrobotic Technology with their Peregrine lander also in 2021 (a smaller sibling to VIPER’s Griffin lander), and as of April, Masten Space Systems XL-1 lander in 2022. Intuitive Machines recently announced (pdf) that Nova-C will land near Vallis Schröteri, the Moon’s largest sinuous rille (a valley that may be a collapsed lava tube) located in the Oceanus Procellarum / “Ocean of Storms”, which itself is the largest lunar maria—a flat, low-boulder region with lots of sunlight. Launched on a Falcon 9 from KSC, Nova-C will carry 5 NASA payloads (along with additional commercial payloads) and will use optical Terrain Relative Navigation to land within 200 m of a target (pdf). Meanwhile, Masten’s XL-1—based on their landers that won the Lunar lander X Prize in 2009—will head for the lunar south pole, and Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander will head to a currently unannounced location with payloads that include their tiny “CubeRover”. So many lunar missions! | 
