Far side of the Moon.

The far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that is permanently turned away from the Earth. This face is not visible because the rotation of the moon about its axis is synchronized with its orbital period. This lock-step synchronization was achieved by the tidal forces between the Earth and the Moon. Download high resolution version (1719x1719, 311 KB) Original Caption Released with Image About 50,000 Clementine images were processed to produce the four orthographic views of the Moon. ... Download high resolution version (1719x1719, 311 KB) Original Caption Released with Image About 50,000 Clementine images were processed to produce the four orthographic views of the Moon. ... Crust composition Oxygen 43% Silicon 21% Aluminium 10% Calcium 9% Iron 9% Magnesium 5% Titanium 2% Nickel 0. ... Lunar may refer to: an adjective that means having to do with or pertaining to the Moon, or to moons in general. ... Earth, also known as the Earth, Terra, and (mostly in the 19th century) Tellus, is the third-closest planet to the Sun. ... Tidal locking makes one side of an astronomical body always face another, like the Moon facing the Earth. ... Earth, also known as the Earth, Terra, and (mostly in the 19th century) Tellus, is the third-closest planet to the Sun. ...

The two hemispheres have a distinctly different appearance, with the near side covered in multiple, large maria. The far side has a battered, densely-cratered appearance with few mares. Only 2.5% of the surface of the far side is covered by maria, compared to 31.2% on the near side. The most likely explanation for this difference is that the crust of the Moon is 40 km thicker on the far side. Thus it was more difficult for molten materials to penetrate to the surface. The Lunar maria (singular: mare, pronounced MAH-ray) are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earths Moon, formed by ancient basaltic flood eruptions caused by extremely large meteoroid impacts. ... Look up Lava, ‘A‘a, or Pāhoehoe in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Lava is molten rock that a volcano expels during an eruption. ...

The far side was sometimes referred to as the "Dark Side", due to the lack of human knowledge concerning that hemisphere. The word "Dark" in a cultural context was meant to express a lack of information, rather than the actual lighting conditions.

Exploration

Until the far side of the Moon was photographed by the Soviet probe Luna 3 in 1959, little was known about its properties. Librations of the Moon periodically allowed limited glimpses of features that are located near the lunar limb on the far side. But these features were seen from a low angle, hindering useful observation. (It proved difficult to distinguish a crater from a mountain range.) The remaining 41% of the surface on the far side remained unknown, and its properties were subject to much speculation. A photograph (often just called a photo) is an image (or a representation of that on e. ... Soviet redirects here. ... Luna 3, an automatic interplanetary station of the Luna program, was the third spacecraft successfully launched to the Moon and the first to return images of the lunar far side. ... 1959 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Although the Moon keeps the same side towards Earth, careful observations will reveal you can actually see 59% of the Moons surface. ...

An example of a far side feature that can be viewed through libration is the Mare Orientale, which is a prominent impact basin spanning almost 1,000 kilometers. Yet this wasn't even named as a feature until 1906, by Julius Franz in Der Mond. The true nature of the basin was discovered in the 1960s when rectified images were projected onto a globe. It was photographed in fine detail by Lunar Orbiter 4 in 1967. 1967 photograph made by NASAs Lunar Orbiter 4 Like a target ring bulls-eye, the lunar mare Mare Orientale (the eastern sea) is one of the most striking large scale lunar features. ... A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer) (symbol: km) is a unit of length equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words khilia = thousand and metro = count/measure). ... 1906 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Julius Heinrich Franz (1847–1913) was a German astronomer. ... The 1960s, or The Sixties, in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ... Lunar Orbiter 4 was designed to take advantage of the fact that the three previous Lunar Orbiters had completed the required needs for Apollo mapping and site selection. ... 1967 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

As the far side was first viewed by Soviet space probes, the Russians selected many of the names for the prominent features. This action provoked some controversy, and so the International Astronomical Union later assumed the role of naming lunar features on this hemisphere. However many of the names selected by the Soviets are still recognized. Soviet redirects here. ... Logo of the IAU The International Astronomical Union (IAU) unites national astronomical societies from around the world. ...

The far side was first observed directly by human eyes during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. It has been seen by all crew members of the Apollo 10 through Apollo 17 missions since that time, and photographed by multiple lunar probes. Spacecraft passing behind the Moon were out of direct radio communication with the Earth, and had to wait until the orbit allowed transmission. During the Apollo missions, the main engine of the Service Module was fired when the vessel was behind the Moon, producing some tense moments in Mission Control before the craft reappeared. U.S. Space Shuttle astronaut Bruce McCandless II using a manned maneuvering unit (MMU) outside the Challenger in 1984. ... William A. Anders (b. ... Apollo 8 was the second manned mission of the Apollo space program that was launched. ... Binomial name Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Subspecies Homo sapiens idaltu (extinct) Homo sapiens sapiens For other uses, see Human (disambiguation). ... Apollo 8 was the second manned mission of the Apollo space program that was launched. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Apollo 10 was the fourth manned mission in the Apollo program, and the first (and only manned Saturn V) mission to launch from pad 39B. The mission included the second crew to orbit the Moon, and the test of the lunar module in lunar orbit. ... Apollo 17 was the eleventh manned space mission in the NASA Apollo program, and was the sixth and last mission to date to land on the Moon. ... An aerial view of the complete Johnson Space Center facility in Houston, Texas in 1989. ...

Potential

Because the far side of the Moon is shielded from radio transmissions from the Earth, it is considered a good location for placing radio telescopes for use by astronomers. Small, bowl-shaped craters provide a natural formation for a stationary telescope similar to Arecibo in Puerto Rico. For much larger-scale telescopes, the 100-kilometer diameter crater Daedalus is sitated near the center of the far side, and the 3-km-high rim would help to block stray communications from orbiting satellites. Other potential candidates for a radio telescope include the Saha crater and the South Pole-Aitken Basin. The Parkes 64 metre radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia (the bigger of the two shown) In contrast to an ordinary telescope, which produces visible light images, a radio telescope sees radio waves emitted by radio sources, typically by means of a large parabolic (dish) antenna, or arrays of... An astronomer or astrophysicist is a scientist whose area of research is astronomy or astrophysics. ... 50 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory. ... Arecibo is a municipality in Puerto Rico named after the Taino Cacique Arasibo. ... A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer) (symbol: km) is a unit of length equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words khilia = thousand and metro = count/measure). ... Daedalus is a prominent crater located near the center of the far side of the Moon. ... Saha is a lunar impact crater on the Moons far side, behind the eastern limb as seen from the Earth. ... The South Pole-Aitken basin is an impact crater on Earths Moon. ...

Before deploying radio telescopes to the far side, several problems must be overcome. The fine lunar dust can serve to contaminate equipment, vehicles, and space suits. The conducting materials used for the radio dishes must also be carefully shielded against the effects of solar flares. Finally the area about the telescopes must be protected against contamination by other radio sources. A solar flare from NASA A solar flare is a violent explosion in the Suns atmosphere with an energy equivalent to tens of millions of hydrogen bombs. ...

The L2 Lagrange point of the Earth-Moon system is located about 62,800 km above the far side. This has also been proposed as the location of a future radio telescope, performing a Lissajous ("Halo") orbit about the Lagrangian point. The Lagrangian points (IPA: ; also Lagrange point, L-point, or libration point), are the five positions in space where a small object can be stationary with respect to two larger objects (such as a satellite with respect to the Earth and Moon). ... In mathematics, a Lissajous curve (Lissajous figure or Bowditch curve) is the graph of the system of parametric equations which describes complex harmonic motion. ... In physics, an orbit is the path that an object makes, around another object, whilst under the influence of a source of centripetal force, such as gravity. ...

One of the NASA missions to the Moon under study would send a sample-return lander to the South Pole-Aitken basin, the location of a major impact event that created a formation nearly 2,400 kilometers across. The size of this impact has created a deep penetration into the lunar surface, and a sample returned from this site could be analyzed for information concerning the interior of the Moon. NASA Logo Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... The South Pole-Aitken basin is an impact crater on Earths Moon. ...

Because the near side is partly shielded from the solar wind by the Earth, the far side lunar mares are expected to have the highest concentration of Helium-3 on the surface of the Moon. This isotope is relatively rare on the Earth, but has good potential for use as a fuel in fusion reactors. Proponents of lunar settlement have cited presence of this material as a reason for development of a Moon base. A solar wind is a stream of charged particles (i. ... The Lunar maria (singular: mare, pronounced MAH-ray) are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earths Moon, formed by ancient basaltic flood eruptions caused by extremely large meteoroid impacts. ... Helium-3 is a non-radioactive and light isotope of helium. ... Isotopes are forms of an element whose nuclei have the same atomic number–-the number of protons in the nucleus--but different atomic masses because they contain different numbers of neutrons. ... Fusion typically refers to the merging of two or more entities into a single one: In physics, nuclear fusion is the combination of two atomic nuclei into a single nucleus. ...

Fictional references

• The novel "Space" by James Michener tells the fictional story of an Apollo 18 mission to the far side of the Moon. The novel was the source for a 1985 TV mini-series of the same name.
• The scientifically-questionable premise for the TV program "Space: 1999" was the explosion of a nuclear waste dump on the far side of the Moon. This propelled the Moon out of Earth's orbit and deep into space.
• "Ideas Die Hard" (1957), a short story by Isaac Asimov, described an ill-fated trip to the dark side of the Moon. First appearing in Galaxy magazine, it was reprinted in The Winds of Change and Other Stories, ISBN 0-586-05743-9.
• In the anime show Grendizer, the Vega galactic empire has set up a base on the far side of the Moon from which they launch attacks on Earth.
• Pink Floyd had a seminal album titled Dark Side Of The Moon, that, apart from the title and a line in the songs Brain Damage and Eclipse , actually had nothing to do with the Earth's moon.

Space is a novel by James A. Michener published in 1982. ... James Albert Michener (February 3, 1907? - October 16, 1997) was the American author of such books as Tales of the South Pacific (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948), Hawaii, The Drifters, Centennial, The Source, The Fires of Spring, Chesapeake, Caribbean, Caravans, Alaska, Texas and Poland. ... Description Role: Earth and Lunar Orbit Crew: 3; CDR, CM pilot, LM pilot Dimensions Height: 36. ... 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. ... A miniseries, in a serial storytelling medium, is a production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. ... // What is science? There are different theories of what science is. ... Left to right: Barbara Bain, Catherine Schell and Martin Landau from Space:1999s second season. ... The word nuclear means of or belonging to the nucleus or something. ... 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Dr. Isaac Asimov enthroned with symbols of his lifes work (Rowena Morrill) Dr. Isaac Asimov (c. ... The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein in Galaxy, Sept. ... Image:Grendizer1. ... Dark Side of the Moon (DSotM; the initial The is included in some versions of the title) is a 1973 concept album by Pink Floyd, dealing with the pressures of life such as time, money, war, mental illness, and death. ...

External links

• Prospecting for Helium-3 on the Moon