On VIPER and When to Cancel Missions - Scientific American

In this Scientific American article, Thomas argues that “losing the VIPER mission does more than just zero out some cool lunar science—it pulls the scientific teeth from the Artemis program in an irreversible way."

VIPER is a moon rover that aims to research water on the moon's polar regions. It was supposed to be $433.5 million, but “delays pushed its projected cost to more than $600 million.”

NASA's Leadership thus canceled VIPER. During his time at NASA, Thomas canceled his own share of missions.

But when should you cancel a mission, and when is it worth pulling through?

You can read the article here, where it was published.