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"

[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"

[slashdice]

Worst appeal to authority ever.

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"

[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: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

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.

Not Transformers

[TJHook3r]

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

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