Data centers on the Moon

[StarCruiser]

I really, REALLY wish people would stop saying "the dark side of the moon" when they mean the far side. The only time the dark side and the far side are the same is when there's a full moon. (See diagram in my post above.)

When there's a new moon -- meaning the lunar disk is not visible to the unaided eye -- the far side is the light side and the near side is the dark side!

Using the terms dark side and light side is common - and yes - wrong. That's why I put them in quotes!

 

[Nerys Myk]

I really, REALLY wish people would stop saying "the dark side of the moon" when they mean the far side. The only time the dark side and the far side are the same is when there's a full moon. (See diagram in my post above.)

When there's a new moon -- meaning the lunar disk is not visible to the unaided eye -- the far side is the light side and the near side is the dark side!

I blame Pink Floyd.

 

[XCV330]

there's a new photo about every two hours. DISCOVR is at L1, about a million miles from earth on the sunward side, so it is further than the moon, and all pictures of earth are full sunlight. One cool thing is you will get to see the moon transition across when every lunar cycle.

Sorry I said something wrong and am correcting it. Apparently the spacecraft is not direcly on the Solar ecliptic so it doesn't catch every transition of the moon's far side across the sun, nor every solar eclipse. So the actual recordings of lunar transitions are somewhat rare foth DSCOVR, but interesting.

https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/galleries/2016/lunar_transit

 

[publiusr]

That shows how dark regolith can be…

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Yeah, the albedo of the Moon is 0.12 on average. Its surface is mostly basalt. The average albedo of the Earth is 0.37. Saturn's ice moon Enceladus has an albedo of nearly 1.