Let's call it the far side of the moon, it is the near side which always faces us when we look at the moon, from Earth. The word "dark side" is due to the Apollo program when the apollo lander will go dark to communications. That is, once it reaches the far side of the moon, no communication is possible until it emerges out of the other side.hanumadu wrote: ↑23 Aug 2023 23:03 CNN (not IBN but the Amrikan wala channel) had this ex NASA astronaut and professor in their studios to talk about Indian moon landing and he was saying that no one attempted to land on the south pole so far because no body thought it was feasible. But in 2019 we almost did it and that should have made it clear it was possible but other than Russia nobody attempted to do it in 4 years.
China landed on the dark side of the moon. How difficult was it compared to ours and how did/do they communicate with it?
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Yes, the ex-Nasa astronaut and professor are right, it was *not feasible* because the technology and engineering required was a quantum jump. Yes, a quantum jump even over the Change' 4.
Yes, the Change' 4 landing was complex. Still it landed on a relatively very very very flat lava flood plain formed within a crater. It landed in the Von Kamen impact crater of ~160km diameter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_K%C3% ... graphy.jpg.
Chandrayaan 3 is an order more complex than Change' 4. Since landing at the S. Pole of moon requires a far more sophisticated autonomous navigation system. Its a generational shift in the nav system and integration with various input/output elements (for example cameras, laser altimeters) etc to achieve a landing precisely and at a safe spot.
It was C2 which thought us a lot and it is C3 which nailed it. The technology used in C3 is ultra-sophisticated state of the art technology. And ISRO has it in house.
I mentioned this earlier and mention it again, the inertial system used in Luna 25 is 10x heavier than what airbus sells for space mission. ISRO I believe has as sophisticated if not more sophisticated inertial system in C3 than what airbus/ESA has.
Again, the C2 camera taking fotos of the moon is the most advanced camera currently orbiting the moon. It was C2 that helped narrow down the precise spot for C3.