NASA has awarded Draper, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, a contract to deliver Artemis science probes to the moon in 2025. The commercial delivery is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative under Artemis. Draper will receive $73 million for the contract and is responsible for end-to-end delivery services, including payload integration, Earth-to-lunar delivery and cargo operations. This award is the eighth award for a surface delivery task awarded to a CLPS contractor.
“This lunar surface delivery to a geographic region on the Moon that is not visible from Earth will enable science to be conducted at a location of interest but far from the first Artemis human landing missions,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration at 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 prepare for Artemis astronaut missions to the lunar surface.”
Experiments on Draper’s SERIES-2 lander are headed to the Schrödinger Basin, a large lunar impact crater on the far side of the Moon, near the lunar south pole. This interesting geological site is about 200 miles in diameter. The outer ring of the basin is made up of impact molten meteorites, and the inner ring is known for its smooth floor deposits, which may be a combination of both impact melt and volcanic material.” The place of delivery of the payload is the first for us. Operations from the far side of the Moon will help improve the way we monitor activity from there to achieve science goals — all while collecting payload data,” said Chris Culbert, CLPS program manager at NASA‘s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “The services provided by the contractor will prepare for future, more complex operations on the lunar surface.”
The Schrödinger Basin is one of the youngest impact basins on the lunar surface, the impact of which uplifted the deep crust and upper mantle of the Moon in its top ring. Later, the inner basin was the site of a major volcanic eruption. Scientists hope to study the thermal and geophysical properties of the lunar interior, as well as the electrical and magnetic properties of a landing site shielded from Earth’s electromagnetic fields.
Two of the three investigations selected for this flight are part of NASA’s Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) call for proposals. Draper will deliver three probes that will together weigh about 209 pounds (95 kilograms) and will include the Farside Seismic Suite (FSS), which aims to return NASA’s first monthly seismic data from the far side of the Moon. This new data could help scientists better understand the tectonic activity in this region of the moon, reveal how often the far side of the moon is hit by small meteorites, and provide new information about the moon’s internal structure. The instrument consists of two of the most sensitive seismometers ever built for spaceflight. FSS is one of two PRISM selections. It is funded through NASA in collaboration with the Center National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) – the French Space Agency – and is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
The Lunar Interior Temperature and Materials Suite (LITMS), also a PRISM selection, is a suite of two instruments: the Lunar Instrumentation for Thermal Exploration with Rapidity, a subsurface heat flow probe and pneumatic drill; and Lunar Telluric Currents, an electric field instrument. This set of payloads aims to investigate the heat flow and subsurface electrical conductivity structure of the lunar interior in the Schrödinger Basin. Combining these measurements is a way to resolve the thermal and compositional structure of the Moon’s surface. LITMS is funded by NASA and led by the Southwest Research Institute.
The Lunar Surface Electro Magnetics Experiment (LuSEE), which will perform comprehensive measurements of electromagnetic phenomena on the surface of the Moon. LuSEE uses DC electric and magnetic field measurements to study the conditions that control the electrostatic potential of the lunar surface, which in turn plays a controlling role in dust transport. LuSEE also uses measurements of plasma waves to characterize the lunar ionosphere and the interaction of the solar wind and magnetospheric plasma with the magnetic field of the lunar surface and Earth’s crust. In addition, this payload will make sensitive radio frequency measurements to measure solar and planetary radio emissions. LuSEE is funded by NASA in collaboration with CNES and led by the University of California, Berkeley’s Space Science Laboratory.
Multiple commercial deliveries continue to be part of NASA’s plans for the Moon. Future payloads delivered with CLPS could include more science experiments, including technology demonstrations that support Artemis missions. Through Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon, paving the way for a long-term sustainable presence on the Moon and serving as a springboard for future astronaut missions to Mars. Artemis I is scheduled for launch on August 29, 2022 at the earliest, with a subsequent crewed test flight scheduled for 2024 before NASA sends humans to the lunar surface in 2025 at the earliest.
For more read: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-draper-to-fly-research-to-far-side-of-moon
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