Draper wins NASA contract to deliver science investigations to Moon in 2025

NASA has awarded Draper USD73 million contract to deliver Artemis science investigations to the Moon in 2025. The latter will be responsible for end-to-end delivery services, including payload integration, delivery from Earth to the surface of the Moon, and payload operations.

This award is the eighth surface delivery task award issued to a Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) vendor by the agency.

"Draper and its teammates are honored to be selected by NASA to deliver these important payloads to the lunar surface, paving the way for human and robotic exploration missions to follow," said Draper's principal director of civil and commercial space systems, Pete Paceley.

Congratulations to Draper! @NASA has selected your lunar lander, SERIES-2, to deliver science investigations to Schrödinger Basin, a large lunar impact crater on the far side of the Moon close to the South Pole. See you on the Moon! https://t.co/Ph9Z1jaElQ pic.twitter.com/dhyhyfZoCx

— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) July 21, 2022

The experiments riding on Draper's SERIES-2 lander will be delivered to the Schrödinger basin, a large impact crater near the lunar South Pole. It is one of the youngest impact basins on the lunar surface whose impact uplifted the deep crust and upper mantle of the Moon in its peak ring. Scientists hope to study the thermal and geophysical properties of the lunar interior as well as electric and magnetic properties in a landing location shielded from Earth's electromagnetic fields.

Draper's SERIES-2 lander will deliver a suite of three NASA-sponsored science payloads, which include:

• Farside Seismic Suite (FSS) - aims to return NASA's first lunar seismic data from the far side of the Moon.
• Lunar Interior Temperature and Materials Suite (LITMS) - aims to investigate the heat flow and subsurface electrical conductivity structure of the lunar interior in Schrödinger Basin.
• Lunar Surface ElectroMagnetics Experiment (LuSEE) - aims to make comprehensive measurements of electromagnetic phenomena on the surface of the Moon.

"This lunar surface delivery to a geographic region on the Moon that is not visible from Earth will allow science to be conducted at a location of interest but far from the first Artemis human landing missions. 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," said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.