The moon is set to get its own time zone as launch for a permanent Nasa lunar colony nears

WITH many manned missions to the lunar surface planned by multiple space agencies, the pressure to give the moon a time zone is increasing.

Right now, when a spacecraft is sent to the moon, the time on the equipment is set to the time of the relevant space agency on Earth.

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This means that many lunar missions followed different time scales.

As more space agencies travel there together and work on missions, timekeeping on the Moon is becoming increasingly important.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA are just two space agencies with plans for moon bases.

The time the clocks on these bases will show was the topic of November 2022 at ESA’s ESTEC technology center.

Accordingly Sky newsESA Navigation Systems Engineer Pietro Giordano said: “We agreed on the importance and urgency of defining a common lunar reference time that is internationally recognized and to which all lunar systems and users can refer.

“To achieve this, a joint international effort is now being launched.”

Having a standard lunar time is important for many reasons.

It’s important for things like navigation and scientific experimentation, as well as for social purposes.

Clocks on the moon must be slightly different from those on earth.

Because of the lower gravity on the lunar surface, they tick faster.

Special clocks or adjustments must be made to accommodate this.

After a lunar time was set, ESA said other planets could get their own time zones as well.

NASA hopes to build an Artemis base on the moon in 2024.

US astronaut Stan Love previously spoke exclusively to The US Sun about plans for humans to live on the moon.

Love believes that some people will live on the moon to work but will not find a permanent home.

He told The US Sun: “I think they’re going to live on the moon and have a base there.

“But I don’t think they will move their families there. My example is Antarctica.

“We’ve had people in Antarctica continuously since 1957, and that was about 60 years ago, and no one has moved their family there.”