Luna 3
 The Soviet Union's Luna 3 spacecraft snapped the first pictures of the far side of the Moon, which is often called the "darkside," in October 1959. The crude images showed several volcanic "seas" (the larger dark splotches) and several craters. The small spot at lower right is a crater that later was named in honor of Russian rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovski. [NASA]
Luna 3 flew under the Moon's south pole, then swooped up around the farside, which at the time was basking in the sunlight.
The craft carried a 35-millimeter camera that snapped about 30 pictures. After an on-board laboratory processed the film, the pictures were scanned and transmitted to Earth. A British radio telescope intercepted the pictures and released them to the world.
Although they were crude and noisy by modern standards, the pictures caused a sensation. And they showed us that the farside is quite different from the nearside. Most of its surface consists of bright mountains and jumbled terrain. Only two dark volcanic plains were visible in the pictures. They were named the Sea of Moscow and the Sea of Dreams.
Since then, quite a few other craft have viewed the farside, giving us detailed maps of the Moon's "dark" hemisphere. Yet only 24 men have seen it with their own eyes -- the Apollo astronauts who orbited the Moon.
A modern-day lunar explorer is ready to get its own close-up view of the Moon -- a view that won't last long. We'll have more about that tomorrow.
Script by Damond Benningfield, Copyright 2009
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