The MoonRise mission focuses on the giant South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far side of the moon

Far side of the Moon

The far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that is permanently turned away, and is not visible from the surface of the Earth. The far hemisphere was first photographed by the Soviet Luna 3 probe in 1959, and was first directly observed by human eyes when the Apollo 8 mission orbited the Moon...

 between the Moon's South Pole and Aitken Crater, 16° south of the Moon's equator. This basin measures nearly 2500 kilometres (1,553.4 mi) in diameter and 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) in depth. This region is the oldest, deepest, observable impact basin on the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

 and provides a window into the deep crust

Crust (geology)

In geology, the crust is the outermost solid shell of a rocky planet or natural satellite, which is chemically distinct from the underlying mantle...

 of the moon and it's past history as a result. The basin is also among the largest recognized impact structures in the Solar System

Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...

. The mission would be NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

's first unmanned sample return mission.

Moonrise was not selected for the next New Frontiers program

New Frontiers program

The New Frontiers program is a series of space exploration missions being conducted by NASA with the purpose of researching several of the Sun's planets including Jupiter, Venus, and the dwarf planet Pluto...

 launch, losing out to OSIRIS-REx

OSIRIS-REx

Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer is a planetary science mission, the third selected in the New Frontiers Program. The mission will study and return a sample of a carbonaceous asteroid to Earth for detailed analyses in about 2023...

asteroid sample return mission.