The moon could have its own time, according to space agencies like Esa

The interest in the moon by various space agencies has reached a record high, which has led to a problem: what time should apply to the moon? Now writes that this problem will have a solution Sky News.

According to the European Space Agency Esa, several missions to the moon are underway and there are also plans to establish lunar bases in the future. Precisely for this reason, many international space organizations have begun to discuss how to track time on the Moon. The discussions were held, among others, at the Esa Research Center in the Netherlands during 2022.

– We agreed on the importance and urgency of defining a common time reference for the Moon, which is internationally accepted and can be referred to by all possible technical systems on the Moon, Esa navigation system engineer Pietro Giordano tells Sky News.

During previous lunar flights, each rocket had its own timer that operated through antennas adapted for outer space that were used to keep the onboard timers in sync with time on Earth.

A uniform and accurate time on the moon would have facilitated navigation on the moon.

Longer days but faster turnaround

But there are a number of challenges to determining an exact lunar time. First, the parties involved must decide who or who will be responsible for tracking the timing of the moon.

At the same time, clocks on the Moon work differently than they do on Earth.

The moon’s lighter gravity causes clocks to run faster there, though only about 56 microseconds faster per day. At the same time, the day on the Moon is much longer, when it comes to sunrise and sunset, than on Earth.

Calculating the time the organizations get to should be practical for astronauts, the Esa researchers are keen to point out.

– It will be a bit of a challenge on the surface as each day is 29.5 (Earth) days long at the equator. Bernhard Hoffenbach, who works at Esa on issues related to daylight on the moon, told Sky News: It includes 14 cold lunar days, during which the Earth is just a little blue circle in the dark sky.

– But if we get a working time system for the Moon, we can go ahead and do the same for other planetary destinations, he continues.

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