Upcoming missions to the Moon’s farside—that’s definitely not its dark side.

<If you too want to change the frustrating misconception of people at large calling our Moon’s farside as its “dark side”, send them this rebuttal article by Ethan Siegel while also blaming Pink Floyd and the Transformers. The Moon does have real dark sides, and they’re called permanently shadowed regions.>Chang’e 4 lander on the farside of the Moon, as imaged by the Yutu 2 rover. Image: CNSAChina pioneered exploring our Moon’s mysterious farside with the Chang’e 4 and Chang’e 6 missions. Soil and rock samples fetched by Chang’e 6 changed our understanding of the Moon’s evolution, paving the way for future missions to seek answers to the next set of scientific questions about our Moon and its connection to Earth as well as events in the Solar System. Chang’e 4 and its associated Queqiao 1 satellite demonstrated farside relay communications, a first as well, and carried an instrument for cosmic radio measurements to prepare for leveraging the lunar farside’s value as a unique platform…