In wake of recent successful landing of Chang'e 4, are there any earlier plans by either the USA or Russia/USSR to land a probe or even a man on the lunar far side?
In wake of recent successful landing of Chang'e 4, are there any earlier plans by either the USA or Russia/USSR to land a probe or even a man on the lunar far side?
Seems that Geologist-astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who became the last to step onto the Moon, aggressively lobbied for a landing site to be on the far side of the Moon, targeting the lava-filled crater Tsiolkovskiy. Schmitt's ambitious proposal included a special communications satellite based on the existing TIROS satellites to be launched into a Farquhar–Lissajous halo orbit around the L2 point so as to maintain line-of-sight contact with the astronauts during their powered descent and lunar surface operations. NASA administrators rejected these plans on the grounds of added risk and lack of funding.
Schmitt's ambitious proposal included a special communications satellite based on the existing TIROS satellites to be launched into a Farquhar–Lissajous halo orbit around the L2 point so as to maintain line-of-sight contact with the astronauts during their powered descent and lunar surface operations. NASA administrators rejected these plans on the grounds of added risk and lack of funding.