Mimoun, and 29 co-authors reported in 2011 that the Farside Explorer is a proposed Cosmic Vision medium-size mission to the farside of the Moon consisting of two landers and an instrumented relay satellite. The farside of the Moon is a unique scientific platform in that it is shielded from terrestrial radio-frequency interference, it recorded the primary differentiation and evolution of the Moon, it can be continuously monitored from the Earth–Moon L2 Lagrange point, and there is a complete lack of reflected solar illumination from the Earth. Farside Explorer will exploit these properties and make the first radio-astronomy measurements from the most radio-quiet region of near-Earth space, determine the internal structure and thermal evolution of the Moon, from crust to core, and quantify impact hazards in near-Earth space by the measurement of flashes generated by impact events.
The Farside Explorer flight system includes two identical solar-powered landers and a science/telecommunications relay satellite to be placed in a halo orbit about the Earth–Moon L2 Lagrange point. One lander would explore the largest and oldest recognized impact basin in the Solar System—the South Pole–Aitken basin—and the other would investigate the primordial highlands crust. Radio astronomy, geophysical, and geochemical instruments would be deployed on the surface, and the relay satellite would continuously monitor the surface for impact events.
Farside Explorer is an innovative medium-size mission to the farside of the Moon that has been developed in the framework of ESA’s Cosmic Vision program. The scientific objectives of this mission are designed explicitly to exploit three unique properties of the scientific platform offered by the farside of the Moon.
• The farside of the Moon is shielded from terrestrial radio-frequency interference, and during the lunar night it is also shielded from solar radio emissions.
• The farside of the Moon records the primary differentiation and evolution of this celestial object, and hosts the largest impact basin in the Solar System.
• The farside of the Moon can be monitored continuously from the Earth– Moon L2 Lagrange point, where there is a complete lack of reflected solar illumination from the Earth.
With two lunar landers and an instrumented relay satellite, Farside Explorer will exploit these properties:
• Farside Explorer would make the first radio-astronomy measurements from the most radio-quiet region of near-Earth space.
• Farside Explorer would determine the internal structure and thermal evolution of the Moon, from crust to core.
• Farside Explorer would quantify impact hazards in near-Earth space by the measurement of flashes generated by impact events.
One lander would explore the largest and oldest recognized impact basin in the Solar System—the South Pole–Aitken basin—and the other would investigate the primordial highlands crust. Radio astronomy, geophysical, and geochemical instruments would be deployed on the surface, and the relay satellite in a halo orbit about the lunar L2 Lagrange point would continuously monitor the surface for impact events. The ambitious science objectives are enabled by an innovative approach. The flight system can be launched to a geosynchronous transfer orbit by either a Soyuz–Fregat or a shared commercial Ariane 5, and a weak boundary transfer trajectory along the Earth–Sun L1 gravity manifold is used to minimize the V of insertion into a lunar L2 halo orbit.
For an update: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/could-humanity-s-return-moon-spark-new-age-lunar-telescopes
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