China Launches Satellite To Explore Dark Side of Moon (reuters.com)

China launched a relay satellite early on Monday designed to establish a communication link between earth and a planned lunar probe that will explore the dark side of the moon, the official Xinhua news agency said. From a report: Citing the China National Space Administration, Xinhua said the satellite was launched at 5:28 a.m. (2128 GMT Sunday) on a Long March-4C rocket from the Xichang launch center in the southwest of the country. "The launch is a key step for China to realize its goal of being the first country to send a probe to soft-land on and rove the far side of the moon," Xinhua quoted Zhang Lihua, manager of the relay satellite project, as saying.

Comments

"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[Mattcelt]

"Dark" side of the moon? In this day and age, seriously?? Even the translation of China's press release correctly refers to it as the FAR side of the moon, which actually gets slightly MORE light than the near side!

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[cayenne8]

There is no dark side of the moon really....

'matter of fact, it's all dark....thump thump....thump thump....thump thump.....

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[djh101010]

It's just a Pink Floyd quote. Calm your tits, man.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[DigiShaman]

There, they will find Pink Floyd

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Dark" side of the moon... actually gets slightly MORE light

Dark isn't always a synonym for "dim". On of the definitions of dark (and the version being used) not known or explored because of remoteness. For instance, did you think that the "deep, dark heart of the jungle" referred to an area we knew was in the shade?

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[Tablizer]

"Dark"...seriously?? Even the translation of China's press release correctly refers to it as the FAR side of the moon

It was translated in the dark.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[Anonymous Coward]

pink floyd, man.

plus, for such awesome intellectuals, such as yourself, it's so much safer to go with simplified terminology that the stupids can understand.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[slashdice]

Worst appeal to authority ever.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know I was really drunk at the time.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[skoskav]

The pedant in me will now hold Reuters accountable for any lack of future scientific reports from the craters in perpetual shadow on the poles.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[Kulahan]

This was a statement for the masses. If you said the "far" side of the moon, it would sound odd and confusing to the majority of people. Those who know there's no such thing as a "dark" side of the moon are probably smart enough to know that the guys sending the satellite up into space know this as well.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[meglon]

At least some country is putting up some https://www.youtube.com/watch?... for exploration.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[meglon]

I don't know that that's an appeal to authority... an appeal to... um... drek, maybe?

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[RhettLivingston]

Slightly in the editor's defense, Reuters did use "dark side" in their title translation.

However, I just checked and many other sources got it right. The editor should have corrected this by finding a better source article. Shame on Slashdot. Double shame on Reuters - they really, really should know better.

Out of curiosity, I just did a quick survey by searching Google news for both "china dark side of the moon" and "china far side of the moon". It appears both that "far side" does win and that most that said "dark side" are just repeats of the Reuters mistake. The world is not as dumb as I feared.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[RhettLivingston]

Good journalism seeks to communicate clearly and effectively. Choosing "dark" instead of "far" in this case does not achieve that.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[Monkey-Wrench-Inc]

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[cayenne8]

I don't know I was really drunk at the time.

"You had to explain why you were mad......even if you were not mad....."

Re: "DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[bill_mcgonigle]

Well played, sir. But welcome to autism central, home of narrow minds, egotism, and the inability to see shades of either meaning or moons.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[Thelasko]

I thought most people explored Dark Side of The Moon in college. The Chinese seem to be a little late to the game.

Somebody told me that The Moon was a belief that life had no meaning. That really put that album into perspective.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[fazig]

Generally, Transformer movies are not known to be of the cerebral sort of entertainment.
If true*, I'd take it as a nod towards how little Hollywood cares for scientific accuracy or at least how dumb the production thought their audience would be.


*Because I only watched the first one when it came out and don't remember a lot about it other than that they had a ton of generic special effects and a hot blonde female scientists say that the alien signal encoding goes beyond their understanding and maybe they had to switch from Fourier transforms to quantum mechanics. Having had to endure Fourier transforms from every conceivable perspective for the past two semesters of analogue and digital signal processing at that point I knew that I smelled bullshit - technobabble. Although I do not expect the majority of people to pay attention to something like that.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[gnick]

A fantastic track from one of the few albums in Rock & Roll history better than Dark Side of the Moon.

On a related note, I've got a bike. You can ride it if you like.

On topic, various definitions of 'dark' allow for 'hidden' or 'mysterious,' which would apply here.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[nospam007]

"There, they will find Pink Floyd"

Nonetheless I wish them a great gig in the sky.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[careysub]

Dark" side of the moon... actually gets slightly MORE light

Dark isn't always a synonym for "dim". On of the definitions of dark (and the version being used) not known or explored because of remoteness. For instance, did you think that the "deep, dark heart of the jungle" referred to an area we knew was in the shade?

Are you absolutely sure that references to the jungles of sub-Saharan Africa being "dark" were not references to the skin color of its inhabitants?

Explorer Henry Morton Stanley coined the phrase "Dark Continent" for Africa in his 1878 book Through the Dark Continent which is a chronicle of his journeys through a central Africa, which was already densely populated by Africans and well known to Arab traders. It was not well known to Europeans, but hardly unknown or unexplored generally.

But no one uses that phrase anymore. You can fly to the capital of any African nation, and arbitrarily detailed maps and travel guides are available to anyone, anywhere.

The far side of the Moon was unknown (and thus "dark" in Stanley's phrase, if he was in fact referring to Africa being unknown and not to its inhabitants) but after the Soviet Academy of Sciences published the first atlas of the far side in 1960 it can hardly be said to be unknown anymore.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[ErstO]

Pink Floyd ..... FOREVER

Re: "DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[Type44Q]

Next you'll bitch that a light year isn't a unit of distance.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[jellomizer]

"For instance, did you think that the "deep, dark heart of the jungle" referred to an area we knew was in the shade?"

Well kinda. The Jungle is heavily forested, the further you go in it beyond man influence. There are not having trees knocked down and a lot of growth overhead, so going deep into the Jungle it will get physically dark. The same if you go into a forest. Deep in the forests it gets somewhat dark. Enough for most vegetation shorter then a tree to not get enough light to grow. Hence why there isn't much grass in a forest.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[Hognoxious]

Like darkest Peru, where Paddington Bear comes from.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[K. S. Kyosuke]

The top and bottom side are really dark in some places.

Re: "DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[whopis]

And on another related note I would to tell you a story about a little man, if I can.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[allcoolnameswheretak]

"Dark" side of the moon? In this day and age, seriously??

This is what has you concerned? Seriously?

How about Space Communists discovering the Space Nazis!! Intergalactic Space War!!!

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[BranMan]

I think you all are just cruisin' for a bruisin'.

Re:"DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

[painandgreed]

"Dark" side of the moon? In this day and age, seriously?? Even the translation of China's press release correctly refers to it as the FAR side of the moon, which actually gets slightly MORE light than the near side!

Dark side of the moon also refers to the far side of the moon because it is dark as to our ability to see it since it is always facing away from us. I may not have read this article, but the ones I have read this is very appropriate because the satellite in question has the purpose of being a relay and communicating with the next probe which will land on the far side of the moon that could otherwise not communicate with Earth.

Fresh off Trade War Victory

[Anonymous Coward]

Donald Trump surrendered to China while declaring 'victory' in a trade war today, while promising to assist a Chinese telecom company which was caught spying on Americans.

Congratulations on electing an incompetent traitor, morons.

Pink Floyd available for $4.97 @Walmart

[Anonymous Coward]

Why you waste your money China??

Wow, What an expensive way...

[bobbied]

To get a copy of the Album... Those crazy Chinese...

I know it would be supporting a capitalist pig organization to buy a copy, but I'm sure a copy of the CD could be obtained for much less than a launch. Just pay for the MP3's (or revive your peer sharing networks and down load it for free)...

Re:Big deal. We launched real people and returned.

[KixWooder]

Actually we do have photos. http://www.skyandtelescope.com...

There is no dark side of the Moon really

[petes_PoV]

as a matter of fact it's all dark

Re:Big deal. We launched real people and returned.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless you want to start providing hard evidence that we successfully pulled off the most elaborate hoax in the history of mankind, I'm going to move on. I will ask this. If it was a hoax, why did the USSR not point it out? They were following every move we made and tracked our spacecraft with radar just the same as we did.

Dark Side of the Moon. Ah wedding memories.

[fahrbot-bot]

My wife and I had our wedding and (self-catered) reception in our home in Dec 1989 -- described as a wedding and cocktail party on the invitations we made. We had (and I still have) a Pioneer PD-M40 6-disc CD player programmed to play the last three discs in rotation, which were George Winston. My grandfather unplugged the equipment during the ceremony and plugged it back in afterward. The player automatically plays the first disc (if present) on power up. The first three discs were Pink Floyd, with the first being Dark Side of the Moon.

Don't know if that was an omen, but we were happily together from the summer of 1985 until Jan 2006, when she died.

Remember Sue...

Re:I've got a better idea

[glenebob]

There is no dark side of Detroit. Matter of fact, it's all dark.

It's Pink Floyd jokes all the way down.

Re:Big deal. We launched real people and returned.

[50000BTU_barbecue]

Point to your analysis and your methodology.

Well thatâ(TM)s sure to piss off the reptilia

[bonedonut]

They donâ(TM)t like the bald monkeys messing with their space station.

Re:Big deal. We launched real people and returned.

[Seven Spirals]

How the fuck can you be sure? Plenty of the folks who worked at NASA of the 1960's are still around, FYI, coward.

Dark Side of the Rainbow

[smprather]

All they will find is a giant projection of The Wizard of Oz playing on a loop. The source of light will be a prism in geosynchronous orbit. How much money will they spend to find the obvious? What a waste.

Schrodinger's Cat

[cdsparrow]

Is gonna be pissed off when they get there and it dies from asphyxiation...

Not Transformers

[TJHook3r]

Am reassured that there are more references here to Pink Floyd than Transformers. Cheers

Re:far side != dark side

[HornWumpus]

/. editors have been the top trolls here since...forever. I think there is some bizarre initiation, that alters their brain, like Toxoplasmosis, but much worse.

But we won't

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

It would be sad if dictatorship spread to the other planets. We really should have a containment policy.

Talk to Selena

[iTrawl]

They should just ask Selena Gomez about it. She saw the dark side of the moon already, to get to some person. No need to send a space probe.

She's also been running through the jungle, running/crying with the wolves, and looked for love in every stranger, just in case you're interested in those aspects as well :-P

As for the far side of the moon (because the moon is tidally locked to our planet and only shows us one side ever), I don't think she knows anything, just like whoever wrote the headline.

Re:Talk to Selena

[Hognoxious]

As for the far side of the moon (because the moon is tidally locked to our planet and only shows us one side ever)

You're the kind of person who, whenever dinosaurs are mentioned, says they aren't extinct because you saw two in a tree this morning.

In other words, a fucking grade-A class-1 shitcock assburger.

Re:Talk to Selena

[iggymanz]

It's also called the "dark side" with "dark" meaning "unseen from earth" you autistic dipshit.

Re:Talk to Selena

[iTrawl]

Yes, let's invent meaning. By "autistic dipshit" meaning "you brilliant human", right? You're a brilliant human too :) High five bro.

Re:Talk to Selena

[iggymanz]

that 'dark side' phrase has been around for couple centuries at least, you can find it in Jules Verne's work

Re:Talk to Selena

[iTrawl]

you can find it in Jules Verne's work

Citation needed. Google* isn't giving me anything but a crated named Jules Verne which happens to be on the far side.

As for the usage, all I find is that it started as a mistake and now there are people defending it usage (and the usage has even been extended to mean "outside of communications range"). Hey, it entered tradition, we must preserve the mistake now and forever...

*I'm sure you'll make fun of me for using Google and Wikipedia instead one of those modern solutions called a "library", so I'm fine if you'll give me a reference that I can only find in a dead tree as well.

Re:Talk to Selena

[iggymanz]

"Yes, startling is the word for it," observed Barbican, replying to a remark of Ardan's; "and still more so when we reflect that not only are both lunar hemispheres deprived, by turns, of sun light for nearly 15 days, but that also the particular hemisphere over which we are at this moment floating is all that long night completely deprived of earth-light. In other words, it is only one side of the Moon's disc that ever receives any light from the Earth. From nearly every portion of one side of the Moon, the Earth is always as completely absent as the Sun is from us at midnight. Suppose an analogous case existed on the Earth; suppose, for instance, that neither in Europe, Asia or North America was the Moon ever visibleâ"that, in fact, it was to be seen only at our antipodes. With what astonishment should we contemplate her for the first time on our arrival in Australia or New Zealand!"

"Every man of us would pack off to Australia to see her!" cried Ardan.

"Yes," said M'Nicholl sententiously; "for a visit to the South Sea a Turk would willingly forego Mecca; and a Bostonian would prefer Sidney even to Paris."

"Well," resumed Barbican, "this interesting marvel is reserved for the Selenite that inhabits the side of the Moon which is always turned away from our globe."

"And which," added the Captain, "we should have had the unspeakable satisfaction of contemplating if we had only arrived at the period when the Sun and the Earth are not at the same side of the Moonâ"that is, 15 days sooner or later than now."

"For my part, however," continued Barbican, not heeding these interruptions, "I must confess that, notwithstanding the magnificent splendor of the spectacle when viewed for the first time by the Selenite who inhabits the dark side of the Moon

Re:Talk to Selena

[iTrawl]

The characters actually are on the far side when it's facing away from the Sun, so it's bloody dark at that time. Barbican very clearly uses the words "the side of the Moon which is always turned away from our globe" just before talking about "the dark side of the Moon", followed by his preference for the "illuminated side". At the time of the conversation the far side and the dark side are identical, so this makes sense. If they still call the far side the dark side 15 days later, then that would support your argument.

So the term "dark side of the Moon" is the same as "the far side of the Moon" for two weeks in every month period :) But I can see how one could take the term "dark side of the Moon" and run away with it for a whole month, every month.

Re:Talk to Selena

[iggymanz]

No, the characters are on the side never seen from earth, and talking about how the hypothetical residents there would react if they saw earth

You might be interested to know that for centuries "dark" also meant "hidden' or "unknown"

Re:Talk to Selena

[iTrawl]

The far side is the side never seen from the Earth... And it also happens to be dark at the time of the narrative.

Re:Talk to Selena

[iggymanz]

Yes, and it's also been called "the dark side", dark as in unknown. Language is defined by use.

Re:Talk to Selena

[iTrawl]

Alice and Bob decide to meet on the dark side of the Moon.
Alice: "Hey mate, I'm here. Where are you?"
Bob: "I'm here too. Where are you?"
Alice: "I have the Earth above my head"
Bob: "What are you on about? There's no Earth here, and the Sun is burning my retinas!"

You might be able to tell that I don't agree with the usage you are advocating.

Re:Talk to Selena

[iTrawl]

Alice and Bob decide to meet on the dark side of the Moon.
Alice: "Hey mate, I'm here. Where are you?"
Bob: "I'm here too. Where are you?"
Alice: "I have the Earth above my head"
Bob: "What are you on about? There's no Earth here, and the Sun is burning my retinas!"

You might be able to tell that I don't agree with the usage you are advocating.

(I replied to myself accidentally, and I wouldn't want you to miss it)

Re:Talk to Selena

[iggymanz]

And people that practice the "dark arts" turn the light off?

That usage have been common for centuries; in other news, the word "jack" has 34 meanings. Jack jacked while jacking his car with the other hand, his jacked earphone jack only playing sound to one ear.

Re:Talk to Selena

[iggymanz]

...and too lazy to consult a dictionary for standard meanings of a word. 'Dark' has EIGHT meanings, including "closed to the public", "showing evil traits", "not known or explored", "possessing depth and richness", etc.

Re:Talk to Selena

[iTrawl]

And people that practice the "dark arts" turn the light off?

Let's imagine Bob and Alice's dialogue using 'dark arts'.

Bob: Hey, let's practice the dark arts tonight. My place.

Now Bob could mean "let's summon Satan and debate the dark side of the Moon", or some innuendo that Alice knows about beforehand. Chance of confusion and crashing a lunar lander in the wrong place: minimal.

If usage causes confusion, it needs to go. I'm advocating that "dark side of the moon" shouldn't mean "the side unseen from the Earth" unless it happens to be unlit at the time as well. The Jules Verne passage you pasted fits very well with this restriction.

Mysterious as

[shentino]

The dark side of the moooooon!

Question

[shentino]

Are they calling the satellite Mulan?

Dark side...

[The123king]

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death