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Author
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Topic: Come over to the Dark Side
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Max Q
Member Posts: 399
From: Whyalla South Australia
Registered: Mar 2007
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posted 05-24-2007 05:38 AM
   
I remember from Dekes book talk of a group of NASA people including Deke who where working missions to the dark side in there own time. I was wondering was there ever any official backing to this and if the Apollo program had have gone on would it have ever been attempted. Now I know there would have been communication issues but man it would have been great to have a look. What do you all think ? |
mmmoo
Member Posts: 555
From: London, England
Registered: May 2001
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posted 05-24-2007 05:53 AM
I take it you mean the Far Side, rather than the Dark Side?If so, I remember Harrison Schmitt was a major campainer for that. From Astronautix:
Apollo 18. The most likely landing site was the crater Gassendi. Before the cancellation, astronaut-geologist Schmitt was pressing for a more ambitious landing in Tycho or the lunar farside. NASA cancelled Apollo 18 and 19 on 2 September 1970 because of congressional cuts in FY 1971 NASA appropriations. Pressure from the scientific community resulted in geologist Schmitt flying on Apollo 17, the last lunar mission, bumping Joe Engle from the lunar module pilot slot.
Thanks
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Mike Constantine - Moonpans.com Astronaut Autographs and Apollo Panoramas |
Danno
Member Posts: 572
From: Ridgecrest, CA - USA
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted 05-24-2007 10:26 AM
There was a lot of talk about a far side mission, but they would have needed to set up a small constellation of communications satellites around the moon as there would be no direct line-of-site link to the Earth as they had on the other lunar missions.The price of the lunar ComSats as well as the time to develop and launch them made it easy to scrap the entire idea early. |
Max Q
Member Posts: 399
From: Whyalla South Australia
Registered: Mar 2007
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posted 05-24-2007 05:12 PM
Yes mmmoo I did indeed mean the far side sorry if my humor got in the way. Great responce very interesting. |
Obviousman
Member Posts: 438
From: NSW, Australia
Registered: May 2005
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posted 05-25-2007 02:07 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Danno:
The price of the lunar ComSats as well as the time to develop and launch them made it easy to scrap the entire idea early.
I thought that Jack had found some surplus sats which could be obtained quite cheaply? |
Max Q
Member Posts: 399
From: Whyalla South Australia
Registered: Mar 2007
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posted 05-25-2007 07:18 AM
At least one FAR side mission and one to Tyco would have been invaluable pity the penny pincher's got in the way of the required science. |
mmmoo
Member Posts: 555
From: London, England
Registered: May 2001
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posted 05-25-2007 04:08 PM
I just asked Harrison Schmitt about this issue.He told me that a farside landing was taken very seriously by the working troops of Flight Operations as well as himself, even early-on for Apollo 17. They had worked out an entirely feasible way of landing in Tsilkovski Crater between the central peak and the north wall, but senior management shut the discussion down as soon as they had started to move things forward. Regarding the satelites, they planned to put two Comsats at the pseudo-libration point behind the Moon and to use Land Mark tracking to tie the landing site photograph (which was very good) to the Moon's center of mass and end up in as good a position to start powered descent as for any near side missions. In retrospect, it might have required an orbit adjustment after the first tracking run, but they never got to that level of detail.
Hope that helps!
Thanks
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Mike Constantine - Moonpans.com
Astronaut Autographs and Apollo Panoramas
Edited by mmmoo |
MCroft04
Member Posts: 1647
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 05-25-2007 06:16 PM
I asked Jack Schmitt last year how much grief he received for wanting to land on the far side. He responded "not a lot; one day Chris Craft came us and told me that it was not going to happen" and that was it. |
Dwayne Day
Member Posts: 532
From:
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted 05-26-2007 10:13 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Obviousman:
I thought that Jack had found some surplus sats which could be obtained quite cheaply?
I think his proposal was to use modified weather satellites. Anyway, he was a geologist, not a communications engineer.
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MCroft04
Member Posts: 1647
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 05-26-2007 01:32 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Dwayne Day:
I think his proposal was to use modified weather satellites. Anyway, he was a geologist, not a communications engineer.
Don't tell Jack that; becasue I'd bet that he'll tell you he knows a lot about communication satellites. And he probably did at the time. Don't take my comments serious Dwayne, I'm just poking fun at geologists; they think they know everything. |
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