Why has no one ever travelled to the dark side of the moon?

Answer 1

The Pink Floyd did. :)

Answer 2

As others have said, the far side of the moon gets as much light as the near side. At any point in time, half the moon is lit. So when we see a thin crescent, most of the far side is lit. And when we see a moon that is almost full, the far side has only a thin crescent lit.


Astronauts did "visit" the far side, in the sense of flying over it.
All the Apollo missions flew around the moon, and thus got a view of the far side. But when you are on the far side, the moon blocks radio communication with the earth, so no one has never landed there.

Prior to Apollo, there were lunar orbiters (unmanned) that flew around the moon and took detailed pictures. Here is a link to one photo of the far side.

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_orbiter/images/img/iv_008_m.jpg

Here is a link to far side photos takes from the Apollo flights , among other photos.

http://www.apolloarchive.com/apollo_gallery.html

As you can see, the far side gets plenty of light, if you visit at the right time.

Here is a pic taken from a spacecraft on its way to one of the planets. It "looked back" and took this photo of the moon. The right half of the picture is the part of the moon visible from earth. The earth is thus off to the right(in other words, the spacecraft, the moon, and the earth form a right angle) The left half of the moon in this picture is never visible from earth. Since we see an entire hemisphere lit ("full") from this angle, that means that the view from earth was "third quarter" when this picture was taken.

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery/PIA00225.jpg

Answer 3

Maybe because there is no "dark side" of the moon. The entire moon sees the sun during the course of a lunar day, the same as on earth during an earth day. When the side of the moon facing earth is lit, the other side is dark, and when the side facing earth is dark, the other side is lit. Nobody has landed on the FAR side of the moon (the side NOT facing earth) because they would be out of communication with earth there. Radio waves don't travel through solid rock very well, and when engaged in a risky endeavor such as lunar exploration, keeping in touch with earth is important.

Answer 4

First of all, there is no "dark side of the Moon." All parts of the Moon receive about 14 days of sunlight every month.

If you're referring to the _far_ side of the Moon, the side away from the Earth, it has been orbited and photographed repeatedly. All 6 Apollo landing missions and several of the earlier test misions orbited the Moon, so spent half their time over the far side. None of the six landings were on the far side because of the difficulties in radio communication with the far side.

Answer 5

Not only would you lose radio contact, but the terrain is much rougher on the far side and NASA wanted to avoid such regions.

On the other hand, the far side of the Moon would be an excellent place for radio and optical telescopes because of the fact that it blocks out radio and light pollution from the Earth (though not from the Sun).

You would need a small satellite in lunar orbit in order to beam the data back to Earth but that would probably be the cheapest part of the mission.

Answer 6

All of the Apollo astronauts on lunar missions orbited the Moon so saw the back side. There is no "dark" side. The back side faces the Sun just as much as the side we see.
There are photos from lunar orbit of the back side. One of the Apollo missions was scheduled to land ther I believe, but the last missions were scrapped. I think it was Appollo 19 that was scheduled to land there. The problem with sending a probe is you would need a satelite in orbit to relay any data back to Earth since radio transmissions would be blocked.

Answer 7

The moon moves in a variety of ways. For example, it rotates on its axis, an imaginary line that connects its poles. The moon also orbits Earth. Different amounts of the moon's lighted side become visible in phases because of the moon's orbit around Earth. During events called eclipses, the moon is positioned in line with Earth and the sun. A slight motion called libration enables us to see about 59 percent of the moon's surface at different times.



When the moon is between the sun and Earth, its sunlit side is turned away from Earth. Astronomers call this darkened phase a new moon.

The next night after a new moon, a thin crescent of light appears along the moon's eastern edge. The remaining portion of the moon that faces Earth is faintly visible because of earthshine, sunlight reflected from Earth to the moon. Each night, an observer on Earth can see more of the sunlit side as the terminator, the line between sunlight and dark, moves westward. After about seven days, the observer can see half a full moon, commonly called a half moon. This phase is known as the first quarter because it occurs one quarter of the way through the synodic month. About seven days later, the moon is on the side of Earth opposite the sun. The entire sunlit side of the moon is now visible. This phase is called a full moon.

About seven days after a full moon, the observer again sees a half moon. This phase is the last quarter, or third quarter. After another seven days, the moon is between Earth and the sun, and another new moon occurs.

As the moon changes from new moon to full moon, and more and more of it becomes visible, it is said to be waxing. As it changes from full moon to new moon, and less and less of it can be seen, it is waning. When the moon appears smaller than a half moon, it is called crescent. When it looks larger than a half moon, but is not yet a full moon, it is called gibbous (GIHB uhs).

Like the sun, the moon rises in the east and sets in the west. As the moon progresses through its phases, it rises and sets at different times. In the new moon phase, it rises with the sun and travels close to the sun across the sky. Each successive day, the moon rises an average of about 50 minutes later.

Eclipses occur when Earth, the sun, and the moon are in a straight line, or nearly so. A lunar eclipse occurs when Earth gets directly -- or almost directly -- between the sun and the moon, and Earth's shadow falls on the moon. A lunar eclipse can occur only during a full moon. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon gets directly -- or almost directly -- between the sun and Earth, and the moon's shadow falls on Earth. A solar eclipse can occur only during a new moon.

During one part of each lunar orbit, Earth is between the sun and the moon; and, during another part of the orbit, the moon is between the sun and Earth. But in most cases, the astronomical bodies are not aligned directly enough to cause an eclipse. Instead, Earth casts its shadow into space above or below the moon, or the moon casts its shadow into space above or below Earth. The shadows extend into space in that way because the moon's orbit is tilted about 5 degrees relative to Earth's orbit around the sun.

Answer 8

All the Apollo missions that made the trip orbited the Moon and took photos. They wouldn't consider landing there, because for one thing, they'd be out of radio contact.
They were careful, NOT stupid.

Answer 9

apollo 13 slingshotted around the moon when they were in trouble. So they saw the other side.

Answer 10

They orbited the moon and took pictures of both sides. We only see one side as that side is much heaver and the gravity holds it that way.