Originally Posted by
B Fraser
I was going for Feb 6th as this is when the back side of the moon is fully lit. No human has set eyes on this part as the Apollo missions were flown when the nearside was approaching full moon.
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Not quite...
Due to visibility requirements (low sun angle with sun behind the lander) those Apollo missions targeted to the more easterly landing sites, that’s 11 and 17, landed when the Moon was a crescent, not even at First quarter, so those crews got a decent look at a strip of the far side, as indeed did the crews of the two rehearsal flights for 11- Apollos 8 and 10, since they flew with the same lighting conditions.
It’s true through that there’s is a big chunk of the far side that man has never directly observed, and what the Artemis crew will get, because of the fly past distance is much greater than Apollo’s orbital height, is a better view of the far side hemisphere than any of those crews got.