Originally Posted by
WillowRun 6-3
All the Apollo lunar missions included the CSM orbiting the Moon. NASA even has published data on the average orbit durations.
Why, then, is the voluminous commentary constantly asserting that the Artemis II astronauts are the first humans to see the far side?
I suppose I could access some of the telephone-book size Preliminary Science Reports (especially for 15, 16, and 17, the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) Apollo missions) and look for photos from the CSM of features on the far side.
Is the point that the CSM orbits were much closer to the lunar surface, and thus no one has previously seen the whole "disk" of the far side?
Perhaps a seemingly trivial criticism, but unless there was something unusual about the CSM orbits, all the Apollo astronauts did see the far side at least in part, didn't they? Including the LM crew, before and after their descent to and ascent from the surface - correct?
Over time, you can see about 56% of the moon from Earth due to the "wobble" of the moon. The Apollo astronauts landed where it was "morning" such that features would cast a shadow which aided their depth perception. That of course means that the "evening" side would be the back side that is not observable from Earth but would have been seen from orbit.
The LRO has mapped the back of the moon in exquisite detail so nothing new has been found other than the human experience. That in itself is highly valuable but let's not kid ourselves that any real science is being done. This is a hardware proving test flight and one that I would give my back teeth to be on if NASA could put up with the inevitably more colourful expressions of the view.