Elain Brown Science 07.22.2022 23:Jul PM EDT

New NASA-Funded Commercial Mission Aims to Land on the Far Side of the Moon

NASA awards Draper a mission to the far side of the Moon to assist with a successful Artemis launch.

NASA has been working towards going back to the moon for several years now with its Artemis mission. NASA's Artemis will not just touch down on the lunar surface, but instead, build a long-term human presence.

Artemis is an extensive mission split into three, but before that, payloads for science experiments and essential needs will need to get to the far side of the Moon first.

NASA to the Far Side of the Moon

NASA announced that it will give Draper of Cambridge, Massachusetts the contract to transport the scientific necessities of Artemis on its lunar mission in 2025.

This mission's initiative is still under the umbrella of NASA Artemis. The commercial delivery will become a component of the NASA project known as Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS).

According to NASA's announcement, the contract for the payload services will be worth $73 million. The scope of the contract will include payload operations, payload integration, delivery from Earth to the surface of the Moon, and end-to-end delivery services.

The mission's primary goal is to transport a suite containing science and technology payloads to the Moon's Schrödinger Crater, a basin located on the far side of the Moon.

The Draper Series-2 is expected to launch and deliver somewhere in 2025. The success of this mission will be significant to NASA as this will mark their first trip down to the far side.

Schrödinger Basin

The Schrodinger Basin can be found on the far side of the Moon, which spans over 200 miles in diameter, in close proximity to the lunar South Pole.

The Schrodinger Basin is one of the youngest impact basins on the surface of the Moon. Its inner ring is made up of both impact melt and volcanic material, while the outer ring basin is formed from impact melt meteorites.

The basin was created after an impact elevated the Moon's deep crust and upper mantle, creating the peak ring. In later times, a significant volcanic explosion took place within the inner basin.

The objective of the research is to investigate the thermal and geophysical qualities, as well as the electric and magnetic properties, of a landing spot that is insulated from the electromagnetic fields of the Earth.

Reaching the Far Side of the Moon

The far side of the moon is a difficult area to land on. As reported by Space, so far, China has been the only country that has successfully landed on the location.

On Jan. 2, 2019, China's Chang'e 4 lander carrying the Yutu 2 rover arrived in Von Kármán Crater on the far side.

The complexity of landing on the far side of the moon is that there is no direct radio connection with Earth. NASA operators would need to relay information to Earth through satellites in order to make the landing possible and safe.

According to Joel Kearns, of NASA's science mission directorate in Washington, "Understanding geophysical activity on the far side of the moon will give us a deeper understanding of our solar system and provide information to help us prepare for Artemis astronaut missions to the lunar surface."

NASA has stated that the uncrewed far-side mission will gather scientific data in a region that is considerably different from the areas that the crewed Artemis lunar missions will explore.