Discovering the Mysteries of the Moon's Far Side

AUSTIN, Texas - Oct. 16, 2024 - PRLog -- There are dozens of moons in our solar system, but did you know that 20 of the largest moons share a surprising feature – a characteristic rotation rate created by "tidal locking?"

Tidal locking (also known as captured rotation) is the phenomenon that occurs when an orbiting body (such as our Moon) reaches a rotation rate that exactly matches the time required for it to orbit around its main host planet (in our case the Earth).

It's because of this synchronous rotation that we only see the "near side" of the Moon and never the "far side."

It wasn't until the early days of the Space Race that humans first saw a photo image of the far side of the moon – taken by the Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft in 1959.

The far side is surprisingly different.

It's easy to see that the far side has significantly more crater features – and fewer of the relatively smooth expanses known as lunar "maria" (Latin for "seas"), which make up nearly a third of the surface topography of the near side facing Earth.

Some of these craters are quite deep, such as the 60-mile-wide crater Daedalus, which has given some astrophysicists the idea of one day building a dish-style radio telescope on the site. The far side of the moon would have an unobstructed view of space, and its orientation would block out the loud radio chatter emanating from Earth. The 2-mile-high rim surrounding Daedalus would also help protect the site from stray signals from orbiting satellites.

Another area of great scientific interest is the lunar south pole, which has one of the largest impact crater zones in the solar system. Known as the South Pole Aitken Basin (SPA Basin), it's approximately 1,600 miles wide (!) with depths ranging from 4 to 5 miles.

The extreme geological formations found at the south lunar pole have large mountains that are perpetually bathed in sunlight and deep craters that never see the Sun (including the Shackleton crater, which instruments indicate is over 2.6 miles deep).

This has led to scientific speculation that these craters could contain significant concentrations of ice, which, if true, could potentially serve as a water source for human explorers.

Scientists have also postulated that the far side of the moon could harbor recoverable amounts of Helium-3 (a relatively rare isotype on Earth), which could be used to power fusion reactors.

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