Dark Side, Shirley?
> the far side of the Moon.
You know we were just waiting to pounce if you had.
China has successfully launched a spacecraft aiming to become the first lander to touch down on the far side of the Moon. The Chang’e probe was shot into space aboard a Long March 3B rocket on 7 December from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, a spaceport nestled in the Sichuan province. It’s expected to enter the Moon’s …
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I hope every thing goes well for the Chinese and their mission(s).
But if no-one else can see the far side, how would we know if their lander simply crashed and they subsequently put out the pretence of regular communications "from the surface", which were actually created in a studio in Sichaun?
I'm sure that some flat-Earthers are going to be disappointed to find out that the moon is a sphere and it gets an equal shake of sunlight across all longitudes, but I'm sure that that won't shake their beliefs. I do wonder, though, how deep they thing the Earth goes... interesting discoveries recently about biolife up to around 5k down. What comes after that?
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not sure if they meant one of the lagrange points. One exists on the far side of the moon where the 'gravity shadowing' is at L2...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point
So having a comms satellite stationed there could receive signals from the 'dark side' of the moon (queue one of the best Pink Floyd albums, evar), and then relay to Earth. The total signal distance would be about 3 times the distance from earth to moon, which is reasonable. Downside, having to keep a satellite at the L2 lagrange point with respect to earth and moon. I guess one that orbits the moon would cost less... [or you could have 2 or 3 of them, so that one is always 'in contact' while the other(s) go over the horizon]
post-note - the moon wouldn't block the signal to the L2 point if the circle/orbit that the satellite makes about the L2 point has a large enough diameter. Lagrange orbits are kinda like 2 strings with a weight in the middle, spinning in a circular orbit 90 degrees to the 2 gravity wells [or in this case, as illustrated by the strings]. So yeah if that circle is too small, the satellite will be blocked by the moon. It would have to have a diameter larger than the moon, in other words. Should work, though.
I initially thought it would be a single satellite in lunar orbit. Receiving and recording when in contact with the lander and then re-transmitting when in contact with Earth, like Cassini Huygens.
However you are correct and there is quite a lot of interesting information in this link.
https://gbtimes.com/change-4-update-queqiao-relay-satellite-in-halo-orbit-longjiang-2-returns-amazing-images-from-moon
> queue one of the best Pink Floyd albums
You can queue yours if you want. The correct word though is cue.
(And my fingers have made the same mistake too. When I'm touch typing quickly I think a word and my fingers move, not always the correct homophone. The brain is a strange thing.)
That reminds me of a record player I used to have. While it played the first record, I could stack up to five more on the spindle, which had a little lever thing to keep them suspended above the first. When the first record ended and the arm returned home, the lever thing would let the next one drop and that one would then be played. Imagine that! A total of six LPs playing back to back (only one side of each, mind you) without the need for any human intervention! Happy days.
re stack of six LP's.
Yeah, my dad had one of the "Radiograms" that did that. Initially impressive.
Until you realise that each LP slips a little on the one below, not only sounding poor but also damaging the grooves.
Even worse with 7" singles.
Edit : Turned out the ex Mrs was much better at handling 7" singles, and the rest , who'da guessed eh?
Chinese space program is impressive, and should deserve more publicity, even if China was designed as the new Nemesis by the orange Klown.
The search for He-3 reminds me of 'Odyssey 2' when the Chinese spaceship lands on Europa to find water for its propulsion system... Arthur C. Clark was really a visionary man
"The first human eyes to see the far side were the crew of Apollo 8, and one of them told Arthur C. Clarke that they had debated radioing back news of a large black monolith on the surface, having seen the film 2001 before launch, but that wiser heads prevailed."
Well, obviously wiser heads prevailed. The monolith that was found on the moon was buried. It wouldn't have been visible from orbit.
"The first human eyes to see the far side were the crew of Apollo 8, and one of them told Arthur C. Clarke that they had debated radioing back news of a large black monolith on the surface, having seen the film 2001 before launch, but that wiser heads prevailed."
I did not previously know about said debate among the Apollo 8 crew. I clearly remember being 7 years old and hearing Boorman, Lovell, and Anders read from Genesis on Christmas Eve of '68 but in all those years since had never heard about them potentially pranking humanity.
>>>Chang'e-4 is preceded by three other spacecraft. The mission is part of a wider program that will send future probes to collect lunar samples and, ultimately, land astronauts on the Moon.®<<<
I believe the (very) long term plan is to put boots on Mars in time for the PRCs 100th anniversary.