NASA announced Thursday (July 21) it will task a team led by Draper to carry a suite of science and technology payloads to Schrödinger Crater(opens in new tab), an impact basin on the moon's far side. Touchdown of the Draper SERIES-2 lander is scheduled for 2025. The $73 million Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract, if successfully executed, will represent the first time NASA science has touched down on the far side of the moon. (This is the eighth CLPS contract announced so far and also, the first CLPS mission to target the far side.) An illustration of Draper’s SERIES-2 lunar lander, scheduled to send science and technology payloads to the moon for NASA in 2025. (Image credit: Draper) Only one country has successfully completed a mission on the moon's far side, and relatively recently: China's Chang'e k4 lander carrying the Yutu 2 rover arrived in Von Kármán Crater on Jan. 2, 2019. Complexities in landing on the far side of...