Space organizations are pushing for a universal Moon time

[Shawn Knight]

In brief: Space agencies from around the world have rekindled their interest in the Moon. Dozens of lunar missions are in the works for the coming decade including individual and joint efforts. There's still plenty of work that needs to be done before these missions can get under way, which could include the Moon getting its own time zone.

Up to this point, Moon missions have operated based on local time zones exported from Earth but that apparently won't be sustainable in the near future with so many international players participating in lunar activities simultaneously. Thus, a common timescale could be in the cards.

Talk of a lunar time zone started during a meeting at the European Space Agency's ESTEC technology center in the Netherlands in November. According to ESA navigation system engineer Pietro Giordano, a joint international effort is being launched to achieve the goal.

It seems there are more questions than answers at this stage. Who would be responsible for establishing and maintaining Moon time? Would it be tied to Earth or exist as its own separate entity? Why not just use Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)?

As the ESA highlights, clocks on the Moon run faster than those on Earth and gain about 56 microseconds per day. The agency also envisions a timescale that is practical for astronauts. "This will be quite a challenge on a planetary surface where in the equatorial region each day is 29.5 days long, including freezing fortnight-long lunar nights," said Bernhard Hufenbach, a member of the Moonlight Management Team.

Once a functional time system has been established for the Moon, it could make developing similar systems for other planetary destinations like Mars a bit easier.

The time initiative is part of a larger effort to create LunaNet, a communications and navigation architecture to expand network capabilities on and around the Moon. A NASA video compares the system to our use of Wi-Fi and mobile networks on Earth, complete with access across multiple nodes.

NASA's Artemis III aims to return humans to the surface of the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, and is currently planned for 2025.

Image credit: Jon Tyson

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/97781-space-organizations-pushing-universal-moon-time.html

 

[Tetr1s]

Time zones on the moon is an interesting concept, I think they'll do this for every planet, but I believe the moon's time zones will somehow correlate to the phases of the moon (like full moon, waxing and waning phases, quarters, etc.)

maybe I'm wrong but that's probably what's gonna happen

 

[Phyrino]

I think we should start redoing the whole time thingy.
when the first permanent settlers move in on the moon, that should be year zero.
It's not gonna change over a day, but it should be implemented over seeeeeeveral years,

Then there is a lot of problem with weeks and months.
and the irony of counting months on the moon....

 

[Tetr1s]

I think we should start redoing the whole time thingy.
when the first permanent settlers move in on the moon, that should be year zero.
It's not gonna change over a day, but it should be implemented over seeeeeeveral years,

Then there is a lot of problem with weeks and months.
and the irony of counting months on the moon....

I love the idea, but the only problem with that is that if we do that for one planet/moon, then we'd have to do it for every planet/moon. I feel like having a universal calendar would be much simpler.

 

[Phyrino]

I love the idea, but the only problem with that is that if we do that for one planet/moon, then we'd have to do it for every planet/moon. I feel like having a universal calendar would be much simpler.

maybe for months and days. I mean, they got to work on that planetary body.
But I think we should star with the year 0 on earth on that day as well.

Because I think that day will be such an important event in human history and something everybody can stand behind. Because there are several different calendars in the world today.
A way of harmonizing humanity.

 

[Kotters]

I think we should start redoing the whole time thingy.
when the first permanent settlers move in on the moon, that should be year zero.
It's not gonna change over a day, but it should be implemented over seeeeeeveral years,

Then there is a lot of problem with weeks and months.
and the irony of counting months on the moon....

Let's call it the Universal Century

 

[Watzupken]

Just sounds like one of those meaningless things people like to do to distract or make themselves feel important. Time is a metric just so you have some sort of gauge. Assuming they do come up with a "moon time", does that mean that the astronaut that went to the moon is ageing faster due to a "faster time" on the moon? At the end of the day, you just want to know for example that I flew to the moon on some expedition, and for me to do something on it, it takes 1 hour. So faster moon time or not, how does that matter? One can sleep and work anytime they want on the moon since there is no shops whatsoever on the moon that you need to stick to a certain time for work or sleep.

 

[Uncle Al]

I'm already getting too old too fast so I won't be visiting the moon anytime soon ......

 

[hwertz]

Interesting info, good article!

So, clocks on the moon run fast by 56 microseconds per year. That doesn't answer the question, why doesn't the moon just use UTC? Doing the math devices on the moon would need 1 leap second (I guess 1 second removed?) every 48.92 years to keep it even. But, I would just run ntp or manually slow the clocks there down by 56 microseconds a year TBH. (The ESA article says, in fact, they are deciding if they should have independent moon time or just use the earth reference. I guess I'm putting in a vote for earth reference time.) I just assumed all space missions used UTC time already! Even a manned mission, I just assumed they'd get them up at 00:00 UTC instead of 6 or 7AM (for instance), and (given you're in space and don't have a normal day/night cycle) it shouldn't be any big deal.

Article also mentions basically determining the reference values for a GPS system (GNSS, the generalized term for GPS.) For instance, the moon is quite lumpy, and no liquid water -- for deciding what your elevation is, what is sea level? They'll have to officially tell the US to not use feet for things (... or not, apparently NASA finally -- in 2007 -- announced they would use all metric on future moon missions.)

 

[Kotters]

Assuming they do come up with a "moon time", does that mean that the astronaut that went to the moon is ageing faster due to a "faster time" on the moon?

Yes, that's how physics works.

 

[mailpup]

Yes, that's how physics works.

Wouldn't that be offset somewhat by the slower aging during the trip to and from the moon?

 

[Kotters]

Wouldn't that be offset somewhat by the slower aging during the trip to and from the moon?

The velocities involved aren't enough to counteract the difference from leaving the earth's gravity well.

 

[hwertz]

The velocities involved aren't enough to counteract the difference from leaving the earth's gravity well.

But no worries, I ran the numbers (a few posts above) and you'd only age an extra 1 second per 49 years

 

[Hodor]

Why not introduce stardate, like in Star Trek? Then there would same date/time in the entire universe.

It would also simplify dating aliens from other galaxies.