Will we ever be able to view the far side of our moon from Earth?

It's my understanding that the moon rotates and orbits around the Earth at roughly the same speed. Because of this we only see one side of the moon in our lifetime. In the distant past this rotation/orbit ratio was much more uneven. So back then we might have been able to view both sides of the moon, depending on which night a side falls on.

Do you think we'll ever be able to view the far side of our moon from Earth within the next 50 years or so? Will anything change its rotation/orbit speed? What about the supposed Planet X in 2012? I just think it would be amazing to see the far side with my own eyes and a telescope. It would be like having a whole new planetary body for us to explore and analyze, up close and personal.

The only way I see this happening...three words:

Giant Space Mirrors.

Seriously. Without large mirrors in space you will not be able to see the far side of the moon from earth.

This may help...

en.wikipedia.org...

We are limited to viewing about 59% of the Moon's surface from Earth

its never sat well with me that the moon is tidally locked..
ive heard scientists describe its orbit as a wobbly basketball
yet it somehow remains stable enough to only show the same
59% of its surface for as long as humans have records..

wouldnt it slip.. adjust.. move a little.. over time..
being as wobbly as it is...

reply to post by KATSUO


I bet it has slipped position over the years...

...but humans have only been keeping astronomical records (and any records for that matter) for only about 5000 years -- that's just a blink of an eye when it comes to the history of the Earth-Moon system.

Heck, even 250,000 years is just a "fleeting moment" in the history of the Moon, but 250,000 years ago modern man did not even exist to see the Moon.


[edit on 5/29/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]

Never say never cause anything can happen in the future. This is supposedly the far side taken from Apoolo 16 mapping camera, but who knows if this is a true picture or just painted up to look this way.



Source

[edit on 5/29/2008 by Solarskye]

reply to post by genma


50 years?

No, I don't think the Moon will change its distance, orbiting speed or rotation speed in such a way to make its orbit not locked to Earth in 50 years.

Judging by the difference in the number of craters on the far when compared to the near side, the Moon must have kept this orbit for many thousands of years, so I think it will be some more thousands until it changes it enough for us to see "the whole of the Moon".

Unless there is some disaster, and in that case I don't think that anyone would be here to look at the Moon.

Oh, and Planet X is just another baseless theory.

reply to post by Solarskye


It looks the same as all other images from the far side, and it's not that different (only in resolution) from those from Luna 3 taken in 1959.

Short term, no. Long term, probably. The Moon is locked with the Earth at it's current orbit distance. That distance is slowly changing. So thousands of years (maybe just a few hundred) as the distance changes, the rotation will no longer match the orbit speed.

Originally posted by ArMaP
Judging by the difference in the number of craters on the far when compared to the near side, the Moon must have kept this orbit for many thousands of years, so I think it will be some more thousands until it changes it enough for us to see "the whole of the Moon".

Thousands? It's been the same side for billions of years actually. According to Wikipedia tidal locking occurred over a very short timescale of a thousand years or less.

Originally posted by KATSUO
wouldnt it slip.. adjust.. move a little.. over time..
being as wobbly as it is...

Tidal lock is not a coincidence, it is the result of tides slowing down the rotation of the Moon. I mean it's an ongoing process. Tidal lock is here to stay. Would you expect a spinning ball to start rotating again, just a bit, after it has stopped spinning? The "wobble" (libration), OTOH, is a consequence of the non-uniform speed of the Moon around the Earth.

Originally posted by Shadow_Lord
Short term, no. Long term, probably. The Moon is locked with the Earth at it's current orbit distance. That distance is slowly changing. So thousands of years (maybe just a few hundred) as the distance changes, the rotation will no longer match the orbit speed.

No, the rotation period will continue to increase to match the revolution period.

[edit on 2008-5-29 by nablator]

According to another Wikipedia article about Lunar mare (seas), tidal despinning is predicted to have occurred quickly (on the order to 10s of millions of years).
Anything under a billion years is "quick".
Why all the large maria are on the nearside is unknown. Interesting.