The European Space Agency wants to create a unified system of timekeeping on the moon.
The basic idea is that future lunar missions, both human and robotic, will adhere to a single time standard, rather than operating on the local time of Houston, Beijing or Paris. The International Space Station, which has been continually crewed for more than 20 years, operates on Co-ordinated Universal Time, which is the same as Greenwich Mean Time.
“The discussion is part of a larger effort to agree on a common ‘LunaNet’ architecture covering lunar communication and navigation services,” the ESA said. LunaNet was announced by NASA in October 2021 with a splashy corporate video that promised “internet-like capabilities” on the moon “similar to our use of wifi and mobile networks on Earth.
“Of course, the agreed time system will also have to be practical for astronauts,” says Bernhard Hufenbach, a member of the ESA’s Moonlight Management Team, which plans to put navigation beacons in orbit around the moon. “This will be quite a challenge on a planetary surface where in the equatorial region each day is 29.5 [Earth] days long, including freezing fortnight-long lunar nights.
Mars will present its own problems for future astronauts, since a day there is about 40 minutes longer than on Earth. NASA scientists wanting to keep in touch with rovers on the red planet during daylight hours there have sometimes had to live on “Martian time,” with special watches that run 40 minutes too slow, and rising later every day compared to their terrestrial colleagues.
One thing is certain: With a 29-day period of light and darkness and no seasonal variation to speak of, the moon will never need Daylight Saving Time. Saskatchewanians and astronauts will never need to remember “one small step forward, one giant leap back.”
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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