With more lunar missions than ever on the horizon, the European Space Agency wants to give the moon its own time zone.
This week, the agency said space organizations around the world are considering how best to keep time on the moon. The idea came up during a meeting in the Netherlands late last year, with participants agreeing on the urgent need to establish B次元官网网址渁 common lunar reference time,B次元官网网址� said the space agencyB次元官网网址檚 Pietro Giordano, a navigation system engineer.
B次元官网网址淎 joint international effort is now being launched towards achieving this,B次元官网网址� Giordano said in a statement.
For now, a moon mission runs on the time of the country that is operating the spacecraft. European space officials said an internationally accepted lunar time zone would make it easier for everyone, especially as more countries and even private companies aim for the moon and NASA gets set to send astronauts there.
NASA had to grapple with the time question while designing and building the International Space Station, fast approaching the 25th anniversary of the launch of its first piece.
While the space station doesnB次元官网网址檛 have its own time zone, it runs on Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, which is meticulously based on atomic clocks. That helps to split the time difference between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, and the other partnering space programs in Russia, Japan and Europe.
The international team looking into lunar time is debating whether a single organization should set and maintain time on the moon, according to the European Space Agency.
There are also technical issues to consider. Clocks run faster on the moon than on Earth, gaining about 56 microseconds each day, the space agency said. Further complicating matters, ticking occurs differently on the lunar surface than in lunar orbit.
Perhaps most importantly, lunar time will have to be practical for astronauts there, noted the space agencyB次元官网网址檚 Bernhard Hufenbach. NASA is shooting for its first flight to the moon with astronauts in more than a half-century in 2024, with a lunar landing as early as 2025.
B次元官网网址淭his will be quite a challengeB次元官网网址� with each day lasting as long as 29.5 Earth days, Hufenbach said in a statement. B次元官网网址淏ut having established a working time system for the moon, we can go on to do the same for other planetary destinations.B次元官网网址�
Mars Standard Time, anyone?
By Marcia Dunn
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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