Acta Astronautica 57 (2005) 145 – 155

www.elsevier.com/locate/actaastro

NASA gateways at L1 and L2 and the radio-quiet

Moon Farside imperative
Claudio Maccone∗,1
Via Martorelli 43, Torino (TO) 10155, Italy

Abstract
NASA is currently studying the possibility of establishing future space bases at either of the libration points (also called
Lagrangian points) L1 and L2 of the Earth–Moon system. Two more similar points L1 and L2 of the Sun–Earth system are
also under consideration. Such possible future space bases are called Gateways in the NASA jargon. Each Gateway has its
own pros and cons in terms of gravitational pull, distance from the Earth, and targets attainable by future spacecraft departing
from the Gateway. A preliminary, concise review of these alternative possibilities is presented in this paper.
We claim, however, that an extra factor has to be included in the NASA scenario also. This is the Radio-Quiet Moon
Farside Imperative, called simply the Farside Imperative hereafter. This imperative is the need to keep at least the central part
of the Farside of the Moon free from Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) coming from the Earth and shielded by the Moon’s
spherical body. In fact, the Farside of the Moon, and the Quiet Cone that extends into space above it for a few thousands
of kilometers, represent a unique outpost for humankind: they are the only place close to the Earth where all radio-garbage
produced by modern human civilization cannot reach. Thus, an array of radio antennas located there would sense the rest of
the universe to an unprecedented degree of radio cleanliness, and, hence, of radio details. Not only would astrophysics and
radio astronomy in general greatly benefit from this radio-quiet environment, but we would possibly achieve there for the
first time a neat radio contact with an extraterrestrial civilization harboring somewhere else in the Galaxy (SETI) that could
be too noisy to be detected on Earth.
It is thus felt that a fair balance has to be reached between the astronautical drive to enlarge the exploration of the solar
system and the imperative to keep the Farside of the Moon radio-clean. This paper puts forward a set of constructing proposals
in this direction.
© 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. The five Lagrangian points of the Earth–Moon

∗ Tel.: +39 011 7180 313; fax: +39 011 7180 012.
E-mail address: clmaccon@libero.it.
URL: http://www.rli.it
1 Member of the International Academy of Astronautics.
system
Joseph Louis Lagrange (born in Turin on 25th Jan-
uary 1736 and died in Paris on 10th April 1813) won
the 1772 prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences for

0094-5765/$ - see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2005.02.005
146 C. Maccone / Acta Astronautica 57 (2005) 145 – 155

Then, the three Taylor-series approximate solutions

of the Lagrange’s fifth-degree algebraic equation are
found by first computing, respectively,

(1) The ratio L1 of the distance of L1 from the Moon

to the Earth–Moon distance:

1/3 31/3 2/3 1
L1 = 1/3
−
−
. (1.3)
3 9 27
(2) The ratio L2 of the distance of L2 from the Moon
to the Earth–Moon distance:

1/3 31/3 2/3 1
L2 = 1/3
+
−
. (1.4)
3 9 27
(3) The ratio L3 of the distance of L3 from the Moon
Fig. 1. The locations and distances of the five Lagrangian Points to the Earth–Moon distance:
of the Earth–Moon system.
7 1127 3 7889
L3 =
+
+
4 . (1.5)
12 20, 736 248, 832
proving mathematically that five positions of net zero-
force exist in a rotating two-body gravity field. Out of The numerical values for the masses of the Earth and
these five points, three are located on the line joining Moon, are, respectively,
the two massive bodies, are called “colinear points”
and denoted L1, L2 and L3, as shown in Fig. 1 for (1) Mass of the Earth:
the Earth–Moon system. The other two (called L4 and
L5) form two equilateral triangles with the two mas- MEarth = 5.97369 × 1024 kg. (1.6)
sive bodies, respectively, and so are called “triangular
(2) Mass of the Moon:
points”.
The location of each of the three colinear points MMoon = 7.3750112 × 1022 kg. (1.7)
L1, L2 and L3 is computed as the only real root of an
algebraic equation of the fifth degree, due to Lagrange, (3) and the Earth–Moon distance has the value
that can be solved in an approximated fashion only
by resorting to a Taylor series expansion. Fortunately, REarth.Moon = 3, 84, 401 km. (1.8)
the relevant three different Taylor expansions for L1,
L2 and L3 converge rapidly, so one may take into Then, Eqs. (1.3), (1.4) and (1.5) yield, respectively,
account just three terms in each expansion to get quite
satisfactory numerical approximations. L1 = 0.1596003, (1.9)
Let us denote by MEarth the mass of the Earth and
MMoon the mass of the Moon. Then define: L2 = 0.1595926, (1.10)

L3 = 0.007114. (1.11)

(1) the ratio of the smaller to the larger mass
Multiplying each of these equations times the
MMoon
m= , (1.1) Earth–Moon distance (1.8), one finally finds that:
MEarth
(2) the so-called “reduced mass” by (1) The distance from the Moon to the Lagrangian
point L1 equals 0.1596003R, or 61,350.317208 km.
MMoon The Earth-to-L1 distance is 0.8403997R, that is

= . (1.2)
MEarth + MMoon 3,23,050.482792 km.
 C. Maccone / Acta Astronautica 57 (2005) 145 – 155 147

(2) The distance from the Moon to the Lagrangian
point L2 equals 0.1595926R, or 61,347.568 km.
(3) The distance from the Earth to the Lagrangian
point L3 equals 0.992886R, or 3,81,666.370 km.
We assume in this paper that the Moon orbit around
the Earth is circular. The extension of the Lagrangian
Points Theory to an elliptical Moon orbit, however,
would be just a little more complicated. In fact, (1.3),
(1.4) and (1.5) would still hold, and so L1, L2 and
L3 would themselves move along ellipses rather than
along circles. The “actual” orbit of the Moon and its
Lagrangian Points is, however, still more complicated
than an ellipse, because of the Sun and planets pertur-
bations on the Moon’s motion.
i.e. the minimal speed that any spacecraft must attain
in order to escape the gravity of the Earth forever and
fly out to any destination in the Solar System.
In (2.2) we formally let r → ∞, but in reality the
Earth’s gravitational pull does not extend to infinity. It
only extends to the surface of a sphere, called “sphere
of influence” outside which the gravity of the Sun
dominates, rather than the gravity of the Earth! The
first mathematical expression for such a “sphere of
influence” of a smaller body (the Earth) immersed
inside the gravitational field of a much larger body
(the Sun) was given in 1785 by Pierre Simon Laplace
(1749–1827) and reads
MPlanet 2/5
 
RSphere-of -Planet = DSun.Planet . (2.6)
MSun

2. Escape velocities from the five Earth–Moon When the Planet is the Earth, Eq. (2.6) the radius of
Lagrangian points, and L2 (Earth–Moon) as the the Earth sphere of influence:
best location
RLaplace-Sphere-of -Earth = 924, 646.79518 km. (2.7)
The Escape Velocity vEsc of a body departing from Going back to the Escape Velocity (2.1), the next
a distance r from the point-mass M is defined by “natural” step is to compute the Escape Velocity for

each of the five Earth–Moon Lagrangian Points. In-
2GM serting the four distances (1.8) through (2.11) into
vEsc (r) = . (2.1)
r (2.1), one finds, respectively,
This equation simply stems out of the energy conser-
vation integral for two masses M and m: (1) For L1

1 GMm 2GM
mv 2 − = const. (2.2) vEsc-L1 (r)= =1.5709005 km s−1 . (2.8)
2 r rL1
The escape velocity of a spacecraft located at a dis-
(2) For L2
tance r from the mass M is defined as the velocity
v such that, at infinite distance, i.e. for r → ∞, the

2GM
spacecraft has just zero velocity with respect to M vEsc-L2 (r) = = 1.337331 km s−1 . (2.9)
rL2
(parabolic motion). Letting r → ∞ and r → ∞ in
(2.2), the constant const. turns out to equal zero: (3) For L3
1 GMm 
mv 2Esc (r) − = 0. (2.3) 2GM
2 r vEsc-L3 (r) = = 1.4452465 km s−1 .
rL3
Solving (2.3) with respect to vEsc (r) yields (2.1).If r
(2.10)
equals that radius of the Earth
(4) For L4 and L5
REarth = 6378.14 km, (2.4) 
2GM
then (2.1) yields the Escape Velocity from Earth, vEsc L4-&-L5 (r) =
REarth.Moon
−1
vEsc-Earth = 11.1798728 km s (2.5) = 1.4400966 km s−1 . (2.11)
148 C. Maccone / Acta Astronautica 57 (2005) 145 – 155

These numbers, however, would be correct only did Velocities (2.17)–(2.20) decrease the “true” escape
the Moon not revolve around the Earth! In fact, just velocity from each Lagrangian Point considerably.
as the rotation of the Earth “helps” launching space- One in fact finds, respectively,
crafts “eastward”, rather than westward, we must take
into account the angular velocity Moon of the Moon (1) For L1
around the Earth, expressed in terms of the Moon’s vEsc-L1-FORWARD = vEsc-L1 − vL1
orbital period by the formula
= 0.7151198 km s−1 . (2.21)
2 (2) For L2
Moon = . (2.12)
TMoon vEsc-L2-FORWARD = vEsc-L2 − vL2
The Moon’s orbital period TMoon is expressed by Ke- = 0.1565154 km s−1 . (2.22)
pler’s third law in terms of REarth.Moon : (3) For L3
2 3/2 vEsc-L3-FORWARD = vEsc-L3 − vL3
TMoon = √ R . (2.13)
GM Earth Earth.Moon = 0.4341887 km s−1 . (2.23)

Replacing (1.6) and (1.8) into (2.12), one gets:
TMoon = 27.452000 days. (2.14)
Then (2.12) yields the Moon angular velocity:
Moon = 0.0000026 1 s−1 . (2.15)
All the five Lagrangian Points move of course around
the Earth with the same angular speed Moon of the
Moon. The linear velocity vi of the ith Lagrangian
point Pi , at the distance Ri from the Earth, is thus
vLi = Moon RLi . (2.16)
Inserting the distances of the five Lagrangian Points
from the Earth into (2.16), and multiplying each one
by Moon , one gets the linear velocities, respectively,
(1) For L1
vL1 = Moon RL1 = 0.8557808 km s−1 . (2.17)
(2) For L2
vL2 = Moon RL2 = 1.1808156 km s−1 . (2.18)
(4) For L4 and L5
vEsc-L4-FORWARD = vEsc-L4 − vL4
= 0.4217945 km s−1 .
The outstanding conclusion from the last four
equations is that: the Lagrangian Point L2 of the
Earth–Moon system would be the best, out of the
five Earth–Moon ones, to set up there a permanent
NASA Gateway ( = Space Base) for all future space
missions going to the Asteroids, Mars and beyond !
This idea was correctly pointed out by the leading
American astrodynamicist Robert (Bob) Farquhar to
the author of this paper in private communications.
However, there is a problem here: the Earth–Moon
Lagrangian point L2 is located just right above the
Farside at 61,347.568 km, i.e. 59,609.368 km above
the Moon surface at the nearest point (the antipode of
the Earth). Thus, any Gateway (Large Space Station)
located there would flood the Farside with its own-
emitted radiation. And this is bad, since the Moon
Farside is the only place near Earth to be completely
free from man-made radio pollution.
As we explore in the next Sections 4 through 6.

(3) For L3 3. Detecting radio signals from the Farside of the

−1 Moon
vL3 = Moon RL3 = 1.0110579 km s . (2.19)
Radio signals from the universe searched for by
(4) For L4 and L5 radio astronomers fall into two classes:
vL4-&-L5 = Moon REarth.Moon (1) Radio signatures of molecules important to the
= 1.018302 km s−1 (2.20) development of life, like the 22 GHz water maser.
 C. Maccone / Acta Astronautica 57 (2005) 145 – 155 149

Fig. 2. The simple geometry defining the “Terminal Longitude,  ” on the Farside of the Moon, where radio waves emitted by telecom
satellites circling the Earth at a radius R are grazing the Moon surface.

(2) Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) sig-

Terminal longitude on Moon in degrees

180
nals, narrowband signals possibly broadcast by un- 170
known extraterrestrial civilizations of the Galaxy. 160
150
In order to detect signals of either type it is manda- 140
tory to firstly reject all Radio Frequency Interference 130
(RFI). But RFI is produced in ever increasing amounts
120
by the technological growth of civilization on Earth,
110
and has now reached the point where wide bands of
100
the spectrum are blinded by all kinds of transmitters,
90
whether legal or illegal ones. 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10
Since 1994, the late French radioastronomer Jean Telecom sat orbital radius in GEO units
Heidmann (1920–2000) had pointed out (see Refs.
Fig. 3. Terminal longitude  (vertical axis) on the Moon Farside vs.
[1–3]) that Radioastronomy from the surface of the the telecom satellites orbital radius R around the Earth (horizontal
Earth is doomed to die in a few decades if uncon- axis), in units of the Earth’s geostationary radius (42,165 km).
trolled growth of RFI continues. Heidmann also made
it clear, however, that advances in modern space tech-
nology could bring radioastronomy to a new life, was can hit the Moon surface at longitudes higher than this
Radioastronomy done from the Farside of the Moon, terminal longitude :
obviously shielded by the Moon spherical body from  
all RFI produced on Earth. In 1994 the International R − RMoon  
 = atan   + .

Academy of Astronautics (IAA) gave Heidmann the 2
2
REarth .Moon − (R − RMoon )2
task of coordinating a Cosmic Study above these is-
sues. And, since 1994, various authors studied the re- (3.1)
lated problems, including the author of this paper (Ref. Here the independent variable R can range only
[4]). But Heidmann untimely passed away on July 2, between 0 and the maximum value that does not
2000. The coordination of the IAA Cosmic Study was make the above radical become negative, and one
then taken over by this author (whom Heidmann had can see that the (R) curve becomes vertical for
appointed as his deputy in 1999). R → (REarth.Moon +RMoon ) and  =180◦ (see Fig. 3 ).
Finally, we wish to mention section without proof
(for the proof, see Refs. [5], or [6] or [7]) an equa-
tion vital to select any RFI-free Moon Farside Base. 4. Selecting crater Daedalus at the antipode of
This formula provides the “terminal longitude” on the the Earth
Farside of the Moon where the radio waves coming
from telecommunications satellites in circular orbit of The Lunar Farside Radio Lab Committee of
radius R around the Earth still reach (see Fig. 2). In the IAA (hereafter simply referred to as “the
practice, no radio wave from Earth-orbiting satellites Committee”) claims that Heidmann was too optimistic
150 C. Maccone / Acta Astronautica 57 (2005) 145 – 155
in excluding that future satellites will never be put into
orbits around the Earth higher than the geostationary
orbit of about 42,165 km. In other words, the Com-
mittee claims that the time will come when commer-
cial wars among the big industrial trusts running the
telecommunications business by satellites will lead
them to grab more and more space around the Earth,
pushing their satellites into orbits with apogee much
higher than the geostationary one, with the result that
crater just beyond the limb (the 90◦ meridian separat-
ing the Nearside from the Farside) will be blinded as
soon as a company decides to go higher than the geo-
stationary orbit. A “safer” crater must be selected,
as far east as possible along the equator. The answer
if given by the diagram in Fig. 3 plotting (R).
The vertical trait predicted by Eq. (3.1) for  shows
up in Fig. 3 as the “up going right branch”. This
shows that, if we only keep the equation for  into ac-
count (as Heidmann did), the maximum distance from
the Earth’s center for these telecom satellites is about
8.479 times the geostationary radius, corresponding to
a circular orbital radius of 42,165 km. Was a telecom
satellite put in such a circular orbit around the Earth,
its radio waves would flood Moon longitudes as high
as about ∼175◦ or more. However, here a surprise
comes.
We did not consider the Lagrangian points yet!
So, it will never be possible to put a satellite into
a circular orbit around the Earth at a distance of
358,148 km, simply because this distance already
lies beyond the distance of the Lagrangian point L1
nearest to the Earth, that is located at 323 050 km
(Lagrangian points are, by definition, the points of
zero orbital velocity in the two-body problem!).
So we are now led to wonder: what is the Moon Far-
side terminal longitude corresponding to the distance
of the nearest Lagrangian point, L1 ? The answer is
given by (1.3) upon replacing R = 323, 050 km, and
the result is  = 154.359◦ . In words, this means the
following basic, new result: the Moon Farside Sec-
tor in between 154.359 E and 154.359 W will never
be blinded by RFI coming from satellites orbiting the
Earth alone.
In other words, the limit of the blinded longitude
as a function of the satellite’s orbital radius around
the Earth is 180◦ (E and W longitudes just coincide
at this meridian, corresponding to the “change-of-date
line” on Earth). But this is the antipode to Earth on
the Moon surface, that is the point exactly opposite
to the Earth direction on the other side of the Moon.
And our theorem simply proves that the antipode is
the most shielded point on the Moon surface from
radio waves coming from the Earth. An intuitive and
obvious result, really.
So, where are we going to locate our SETI Farside
Moon base? Just take a map of the Moon Farside and
look. One notices that the antipode’s region (at the
crossing of the central meridian and of the top parallel
in the figure) is too a rugged region to establish a Moon
base. Just about 5◦ South along the 180◦ meridian, how-
ever, one finds a large crater about 80 km in diame-
ter, just like Saha. This crater is called Daedalus. So,
the Committee proposes to establish the first RFI-free
base on the Moon just inside crater Daedalus, the most
shielded crater of all on the Moon from Earth-made
radio pollution! (Fig. 4).
5. The committee’s vision of the Farside for
RFI-free searches
Let us replace the simpler value of =154.359◦ with
the simpler value of  = 150◦ . This matches perfectly
with the need for having the borders of the Pristine
Sector making angles orthogonal to the directions of
L4 and L5. The result is the Committee’s vision of
the Farside of the Moon, shown in Fig. 5. This figure
shows a diagram of the Moon as seen from above its
North Pole with the different “colonization regimes”
proposed by the Committee. One sees that:
(1) The near side of the Moon is left totally free to
activities of all kinds: scientific, commercial and
industrial.
(2) The Farside of the Moon is divided into three
thirds, namely three sectors covering 60◦ in lon-
gitude each, out of which:
(a) The Eastern Sector, in between 90◦ E and
150◦ E, can be used for installation of ra-
dio devices, but only under the control of
the International Telecommunications Union
(ITU-regime).
(b) The Central Sector, in between 150◦ E and
150◦W, must be kept totally free from human
exploitation, namely it is kept in its “pristine”
 C. Maccone / Acta Astronautica 57 (2005) 145 – 155 151

Fig. 4. AS11-44-6609 (July 1969)—An oblique of the Crater Daedalus on the Lunar Farside as seen from the Apollo 11 spacecraft in lunar
orbit. The view looks southwest. Daedalus (formerly referred to as IAU. Crater No. 308) is located at 179◦ east longitude and 5.5◦ south
latitude. Daedalus has a diameter of about 50 statute miles (∼ 80 km). This is a typical scene showing the rugged terrain on the Farside
of the Moon, downloaded from the web site: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/apollo/apollo11/html/as11_44_6609.html

radio environment totally free from man-made

Fig. 5. The Lunar Farside Radio Lab Committee’s vision of the
Moon Farside with the Daedalus Crater Base for RFI-free Bioas-
tronomy, Radioastronomy, as well as SETI. International Space
Stations (ISS) might be located at both the L4 and L5 Earth–Moon
Points in the future. Only Point L2 will preferably have to be kept
free at all times.
RFI. This sector is where crater Daedalus is,
a ∼ 100 km crater located in between 177◦ E
and 179◦W and around 5◦ of latitude South.
At the moment, the Committee is not aware
of how high is the circular rim surrounding
Daedalus.
(c) The Western Sector, in between 90◦W and
150◦W, can be used for installation of radio
devices, but only under the control of the In-
ternational Telecommunications Union (ITU-
regime). Also:
(1) The Eastern Sector is exactly opposite to the direc-
tion of the Lagrangian point L4, and so the body
of the Moon completely shields the Eastern Sec-
tor from RFI produced at L4. Thus, L4 is fully
“colonizable”.
(2) The Western Sector is exactly opposite to the di-
rection of the Lagrangian point L5, and so the
152 C. Maccone / Acta Astronautica 57 (2005) 145 – 155
body of the Moon completely shields the West-
ern Sector from RFI produced at L5. Thus, L5
is fully “colonizable” in the Committee’s vision,
whereas it was not so in Heidmann’s vision. In
other words, the Committee’s vision achieves the
full bilateral symmetry of the vision itself around
the plane passing through the Earth–Moon axis
and orthogonal to the Moon’s orbital plane.
(3) Of course, L2 may not be utilized at all, since it
faces crater Daedalus just at the latter’s zenith. Any
RFI-producing device located at L2 would flood
the whole of the Farside, and must be ruled out.
L2, however, is the only Lagrangian point to be
kept free, out of the five located in the Earth–Moon
system. Finally, L2 is not directly visible from the
Earth since shielded by the Moon’s body, what
calls for “leaving L2 alone”!
6. The further two Lagrangian points L1 and L2
of the Sun–Earth system and their “pollution”
There still is an unavoidable drawback, though.
This is coming from the further two Lagrangian
points L1 and L2 of the Sun–Earth system, located
along the Sun–Earth axis and outside the sphere of
influence of the Earth, that has a radius of about
924,646 km around the Earth. Precisely, the Sun–Earth
L1 point is located at a distance of 1496,557.035 km
from the Earth towards the Sun, and the L2 point at
the (virtually identical) distance of 1496,557.034 km
from the Earth in the direction away from the Sun,
that is toward the outer solar system. These two
points have the “nice” property of moving around the
Sun just with the same angular velocity as the Earth
does, while keeping also at the same distance from
the Earth at all times. Thus, they are ideal places for
scientific satellites (Fig. 6).
Actually, the Sun–Earth L1 Point has already been
in use for scientific satellite location since the NASA
ISEE III spacecraft was launched on 12 August
1978 and reached the Sun–Earth L1 region in about
a month. On December 2, 1995, the ESA-NASA
“Soho” spacecraft for the exploration of the Solar
Corona was launched. On February 14, 1996, Soho
was inserted into a halo orbit around the Sun–Earth
L1 point, where it is still librating now (June 2001).
As for the Sun–Earth L2 point, there are plans to
Fig. 6. In addition to the five Lagrangian points of the Earth–Moon
system (already described in Fig. 1) the next two closest Lagran-
gian points to the Earth are the Lagrangian points L1 and L2
of the Sun–Earth system. These are located along the Sun–Earth
axis at the distances of about 1.5 MKm from the Earth toward the
Sun (L1) and outward (L2). Unfortunately, spacecrafts located in
the neighborhood of these L1 and L2 Sun–Earth Points do send
electromagnetic waves to the Farside of the Moon. Examples are
the ISEE-III and Soho spacecrafts, already orbiting around L1, and
more spacecrafts will do so in the future around both L1 and L2.
let the NASA’s Space Interferometry Mission (SIM)
satellite be placed there, as will probably be ESA’s
GAIA astrometric satellite.
So, all these satellites do POLLUTE the otherwise
RFI-free Farside of the Moon when the Farside is fac-
ing them. Unfortunately, the Moon Farside is facing
the Sun–Earth L1 point for half of the Moon’s synodic
period, about 14.75 days, and it is facing the Sun–Earth
L2 point for the next 14.75 days. Really all the time!
This radio pollution of the Moon Farside by sci-
entific satellites located at the Lagrangian points L1
and L2 of the Sun–Earth system is, unfortunately, un-
avoidable. We can only hope that telecom satellites
will never be put there. As for the scientific satellites
already there or on the way, the radio frequencies they
use are well known and usually narrow-band. This
should help the Fourier transform of the future spec-
trum analyzers to be located on the Moon Farside to
get rid of these transmissions completely.
7. The quiet cone in space above the Farside of
the Moon
The spherical body of the Moon prevents all ter-
restrial electromagnetic waves from reaching the cen-
tral part of the Farside, as described in the previous
sections. But it does so also for a certain region of
space above the Farside itself that we have decided to
call the “Quiet Cone” (see Ref. [9]). This definition is
 C. Maccone / Acta Astronautica 57 (2005) 145 – 155
appropriate in as much as clearly the radio waves tan-
gent to the Moon body define a cone, and clearly closer
the apex of such a cone to the Moon Farside, higher
the radius R of the telecom satellites around the Earth.
To calculate how far into space the quiet cone extends,
consider Fig. 2 again. The similarity between the rect-
angular triangles EGA and MLA (rectangular at G and
L, respectively) yields (EM+MA) : EG = MA : ML,
or (DEarth.Moon + HApex )/R = HApex /RMoon . Solving
for HApex yields the height HApex of the apex of the
quiet cone above the Moon Farside with respect to
center of the Moon:
DEarth.Moon RMoon
HApex (R) = . (7.1)
R − RMoon
Two numerical cases of this equation are important:
(1) For geostationary orbits of 42,165 km, the cor-
responding apex of the quiet cone is located at
16,496 km outward from the Moon center. In other
words, this is how far the quiet cone extends into
space nowadays, but practically the actual value
may be lower in the year 2002 already, for we do
not know about military satellites.
(2) The lowest possible value of the apex height corre-
sponds to a satellite circling the Earth at the max-
imum possible distance, namely at the distance of
the Lagrangian point L1. Thus, the minimal value
of the apex is just 2,079 km.
8. Proposing the new space mission
“Radiomoon”, to set up a radio-telescope in
crater Daedalus
A problem is that it will hardly be possible to link
the base at crater Daedalus to other bases on the Moon
visible side by virtue of optical fibers or landed data
relays, because of the large distance of 2730 km exist-
ing between Daedalus and anywhere along the limb.
To solve this problem, the proposal is made for a new
space mission dubbed “RadioMoon” and briefly de-
scribed in this final section. RadioMoon is made up by
two spacecrafts: one orbiter and one lander. They fly
together from the Earth to the Moon and are initially
parked in a Moon circular and equatorial orbit having a
radius of, say, 10,000 km. The orbital period of this sin-
gle spacecraft around the Moon is 31.641 h (1.3 days).
153
Then, at a time when the spacecraft is just crossing
the Earth–Moon axis on the visible side, the lander
is released from the orbiter and starts getting down
towards the Moon surface along a Hohmann transfer
half-elliptical trajectory. By the very definition of this
Hohmann transfer, the lander just lands at the longi-
tude of 180◦ E, namely inside crater Daedalus (slightly
different maneuvers there would slow down the space-
craft, to prevent it from crashing). The Hohmann trans-
fer has these parameters: semimajor axis 6378 km, ec-
centricity 0.742, time to get down from 10,000 km
along the half-ellipse 6 h 52.86 m. The lander would
be protected by airbags against crashing. We know
that such airbags worked out well on 4 July, 1997,
for the Mars Pathfinder landing on Mars. Since the
gravity on the Moon is about a half of the gravity on
Mars, there is no reason to doubt that such an airbag-
protected landing would work equally well on the sur-
face of the Moon. Finally, after touching down, the
lander deploys a flat phased array capable of steering
its beam electronically for all RFI-free Searches in Ra-
dioastronomy, Bioastronomy and SETI. The orbiter’s
task is to gather data from the Phased Array at crater
Daedalus when flying above the Farside, and trans-
mit these data back to the Earth when flying above
the near side. And the other way round for giving the
Earth’s instructions to the Phased Array operating at
Daedalus, now dubbed the Lunar Farside Radio Lab.
We contend this is by far the cheaper, easier and safer
way to operate a Moon Farside Base.
9. The coming Moon Rush: trying to protect the
Farside against too wild exploitation
The Farside of the Moon is a unique Natural Pre-
serve of Humankind. It still is uncorrupted by man-
made Radio Frequency Interference. We must try to
keep it so for the centuries to come by preventing
any wild commercial, astronautical and military ex-
ploitation of the Moon Farside to take place in the
future.
How can we achieve a Legal Permanent Protection
of the Farside? The United Nations are to be the nat-
ural international forum where this matter should be
discussed. Also, the International Institute of Space
Law (IISL) is the international leading mentor institu-
tion to approach the United Nations with the highest
hope of success.
154 C. Maccone / Acta Astronautica 57 (2005) 145 – 155

Fig. 7. Much of the area around the south pole is within the South Pole-Aitken Basin (shown at right in blue on a lunar topography
image), a giant impact crater 2500 km (1550 miles) in diameter and 12 km deep at its lowest point. Many smaller craters exist on the
floor of this basin. Since they are down in this basin, the floors of many of these craters are never exposed to sunlight. Within these
craters the temperatures would never rise above about 100 K (280◦ below zero F). Any water ice at the bottom of the crater could probably
exist for billions of years at these temperatures. (Pictures and information taken from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center site
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/ice/ice_moon.html).

This legal protection of the Farside, however,
might well be just a dream! The reality could be
much tougher, as neatly described, for instance,
by the Los Angeles reporter Bill Carswell in his
April 18, 2002, Space Daily article entitled The
Outer Space and Moon Treaties and the Com-
ing Moon Rush (download from the web site:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-02c.html). In
essence, any powerful enough, space-faring country
could open up the Moon Rush right now, baffling all
international laws, if any.
Even if one decides to confine all discussions to
purely scientific matters, like geology, astrophysics
and astrodynamics, there could be some conflicting
exploration issues, such as the exploration of the so-
called Aitken Basin. The story is that, on 5 March
1998 it was announced that data returned by the Lu-
nar Prospector spacecraft indicated that water ice is
present at both the north and south lunar poles, in
agreement with Clementine results for the south pole
reported in November 1996. And where is (or would
be) this water ice located? The answer is: within the
largest known impact crater in the Solar System: the
South Pole Aitken Basin on the Farside of Earth’s
Moon, over 1300 miles across, as shown in Fig. 7.
From Fig. 7, it plainly appears that the southern
part of the Central Sector of the Farside would be of
exceptional interest for ice hunters, and so this IAA
Cosmic Study could hardly ask for any protection of
this Aitken Basin by the United Nations or by an in-
ternational Treatise.
In 2003 some discussions were held within the IAA
about the question: what shall we put in the far future
at the Earth–Moon Lagrangian point L2? They had
been originated by the (correct, as we saw in Section
3 of this paper) remark by Bob Farquhar that this L2
has the lowest escape velocity (just 0.156 km/s) out of
all the Earth–Moon Lagrangian Points.
Bob’s boss, the Cosmic Study S 1.1 coordinator
Dr. Wesley T. Huntress Jr., and the author of this pa-
per had a conversation about this problem at ESTEC
on September 22, 2003. Fortunately for the Farside
of the Moon, however, Wes Huntress preferred to
propose the use of the Lagrangian point L2 of the
Sun–Earth system as the future Gateway for all outer
solar system missions. This is because, the Escape
Velocity from this Sun–Earth L2 is nearly the same
as from the Earth–Moon L2, if some special trajec-
tories are used that can be derived numerically (and
not analytically) only. Bob Farquhar did a wonderful
job (as always!) in computing such new trajectories,
and so the Cosmic Study led by Wes Huntress is not
concerned with the Earth–Moon Lagrangian point L2
any more.
In any case, this author would retain the following
suggestion: enforce by law the construction of an RFI
 C. Maccone / Acta Astronautica 57 (2005) 145 – 155 155

Fig. 8. Mandatory RFI shield in space between a space station at the L2 Earth–Moon Lagrangian Point and the Farside of the Moon. This
shield would avoid the RFI produced at L2 from flooding the Farside of the Moon.

Shield in space in between a future L2 Earth–Moon
Space Base (if any!) and the Farside, so as to prevent
any RFI reach the Farside surface, as shown in Fig. 8.
10. Conclusions
As of August 2004, the next two Gateways (Large
Space Bases) that NASA seems to prefer for further
consideration seem to be:
(1) The Lagrangian Point L1 of the Earth–Moon Sys-
tem in between the Earth and the Moon;
(2) The Lagrangian Point L2 of the Sun–Earth sys-
tem, opposite to the Sun at 15,00,000 km from the
Earth.
Fortunately, the Lagrangian Point L2 of the
Earth–Moon system is not regarded as suitable for
a gateway in the IAA cosmic Study S.1.1 just com-
pleted by Wes Huntress et al. This will ensure that
the Farside of the Moon will remain RFI-free.
Further reading
References
[8] C. Maccone, Lunar farside radio lab study of IAA: a cosmic
[1] J. Heidmann, Saha crater: a candidate for a SETI Lunar base,
Academy Transactions Note, Acta Astronautica 32 (1994)
471–472.
[2] J. Heidmann, Sharing the Moon by thirds: an extended
Saha crater proposal, Advances in Space Research 26 (2000)
371–375.
[3] J. Heidmann, Recent progress on the Lunar farside
crater Saha proposal, Acta Astronautica 46 (2000)
661–665.
[4] C. Maccone, Laydown of a tether from Earth visible location
to far side for Lunar SETI, Advances in Space Research 26
(2000) 359–370.
[5] C. Maccone, The Lunar SETI cosmic study of IAA: current
status and perspectives, paper IAA-01-IAA.9.1.05 presented
at the 52nd International Astronautical Congress, Toulouse,
France, 1–5 October 2001.
[6] C. Maccone, Planetary defense and RFI-free radioastronomy
from the farside of the Moon: a unified vision, Acta
Astronautica 50 (2002) 185–199.
[7] C. Maccone, The Lunar farside radio lab study of IAA”,
paper IAA-02-IAA.9.1.4 presented at the 53rd International
Astronautical Congress (World Space Congress—2002),
Houston, Texas, 10–19 October 2002.
[9] C. Maccone, The quiet cone above the farside of the Moon,
Acta Astronautica 53 (2003) 65–70.
study by the IAA”, paper # IAA.8.3 03 presented at the 54rd
International Astronautical Congress, Bremen, Germany, 29
September–3 October 2003.