Landing on far side of moon

[Pawelk198604]

I wonder why none of Apollo mission don't landed on far side of Moon, i also wonder did the new Orion mission when SLS will be ready will land on far side of Moon?

[Tex_NL]

Easy answer.

Apollo needed radio communication with earth (nearly) all the time. Their main navigation computer was located on earth as they did not completely trust the one that fitted inside the capsule.

Behind the moon there was no radio communication possible. The only way Houston could know if their retro burn on 'the dark side' had been successful was to look at the time when communications where reestablished.

[Nibb31]

Yes, exactly that. Apollo could only land in the equatorial regions on the side facing the Earth for delta-v and communication reasons.

Orion/SLS is not going to the Moon. NASA has no plans to develop a lander since Constellation was cancelled. Constellation had a requirement to land anywhere on the Moon, including the polar regions where there are some shaded craters that have never seen sunlight (which might hold water ice) and other areas where there is permanent sunlight (great for a solar farm).

[Navyguy]

All of the above is the answer. Communication was lost when spacecraft went on the far side of the moon,but I don't know about Delta-V.

[Jenteb07]

Delta-v would stay the same if you compare landing on the front or backside of the moon, equatorially (I think, there is only a difference in the moment you deorbit or go for lunar escape).

The difference in delta-v spoken of here is the difference between an equatorial landing place and a non-equatorial landing place.

[deadshot462]

It was suggested by a few NASA members but rejected due to safety issues:

Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison "Jack" Schmitt and other scientists (Schmitt was the only trained scientist, a geologist, to walk on the moon) strongly advocated Tsiolkovskiy as the Apollo 17's, or a later flight's (which were all canceled), landing site, using small communications satellites deployed from the Command/Service Module for communication from the far side of the moon. NASA vetoed the idea as too risky, and Apollo 17 instead landed in the Taurus-Littrow valley on December 11, 1972.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsiolkovskiy_(crater)

[Nibb31]

Clarification: Delta-v imposed equatorial landings. Communications imposed near-side landings. The result was a limited region for candidate landing sites.

Constellation was planned to have global access.