The controlled descent of the Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-3 made it one of the closest approaches of a lunar mission to the moon’s South Pole. However like most of the lunar-landing missions before, Vikram too landed on the near side, making the Chinese Chang’e 4 mission the only one to have landed on the far side.
What are the moon’s ‘near’ and ‘far sides’ and is there a ‘dark’ side?
The near side refers to the portion of the moon — about 60% — that is visible to us. It is always the same side that is visible from Earth because the moon takes the same time to rotate about its axis as it does to circle around the Earth. However this doesn’t imply that the half the moon is in perpetual darkness.
