PAC: Protected Antipode Circle at the Center of the Farside of the Moon for the Benefit of All Humankind

ABSTRACT The international scientific community, and especially the IAA (International Academy of Astronautics), have long been discussing the need to keep the Farside of the Moon free from man-made RFI (Radio Frequency Interference). Consider the center of the farside and specifically crater Daedalus, located very close to the Antipode of the Earth, i.e., on the equator and at 180 deg in longitude. Daedalus is ideal to set up a future radio telescope (or phased array) to detect radio waves of all kinds that it is impossible to detect on Earth because of the ever-growing RFI. In this paper we propose the creation of PAC (Protected Antipode Circle), a circular piece of land on the Farside centered at the Antipode and spanning an angle of 30 deg in longitude, latitude and all radial directions from the Antipode.