What time is it on the moon? Europe pushing for lunar time zone

With more lunar missions on the horizon, the European Space Agency wants to give the moon its own time zone. This can be a challenge in space where there are 29.5 Earth days between the sun and clocks running faster than on Earth. But as more spacecraft are launched beyond Earth orbit, there is a greater need to standardize the time at their destination.

This week, ESA said space organizations around the world are considering how best to keep track of time on the moon. The idea emerged during a meeting in the Netherlands late last year, with participants agreeing on the urgent need to establish a “common lunar reference time,” said Pietro Giordano, a navigation systems engineer.

Currently, the lunar mission runs on the time of the country that operates the spacecraft. European space officials say an internationally accepted lunar time zone will make it easier for everyone, especially as more countries and even private companies target the moon and NASA will send astronauts there.

Space station time zone solution

NASA must grapple with the question of time when designing and building the International Space Station, fast approaching the 25th anniversary of the launch of the first work.

While space stations do not have their own time zones, they operate in Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, which is closely based on the atomic clock. This helps divide the time difference between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, and other partner space programs in Russia, Japan and Europe.

An international team studying lunar time is debating whether a single organization should set and maintain time on the moon, according to ESA.

Clocks run faster on the moon

There are also technical issues to consider. Clocks run faster on the moon than on Earth, gaining about 56 microseconds per day, the space agency said. Complicating matters further, ticking occurs differently on the lunar surface than in lunar orbit.

Perhaps most importantly, lunar time should be practical for astronauts there, said the space agency’s Bernhard Hufenbach. NASA is taking the first flight to the moon with astronauts in more than half a century in 2024, with a lunar landing in early 2025.

“It will be a challenge” with each day lasting up to 29.5 Earth days, Hufenbach said in a statement. “But having established a working time system for the moon, we can do the same for other planetary purposes.”

Mars Standard Time, anyone?