The Moon Could Get Its Own Time Zone As Lunar Missions Multiply

Wednesday's full moon, also known as the Cold Moon, as seen from the International Space Station. Image: NASA, via Johnson Space Center Flickr

(Credit: NASA, via Johnson Space Center Flickr) When we refer to time-sensitive events, we tend to refer to them within the context of their relevant time zones. It’s important to know that you’ll be able to watch a live-streamed event in Los Angeles at 3 p.m. Pacific Standard Time or in Tokyo at 9 a.m. Japan Standard Time. But despite the Moon’s distance from any particular time zone here on Earth, space agencies have so far described lunar expeditions in terms of their own time zones.

Some space organizations are calling for a change. In a statement Monday, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced a joint effort to establish a time zone for the Moon. The common framework, called LunaNet, will encapsulate “mutually agreed-upon standards, protocols, and interface requirements allowing future lunar missions to work together.”

The effort is partly inspired by comments made at the ESA’s ESTEC technology center last year. Organizations expressed interest in “defining a common lunar reference time,” which would be used to standardize the way public space agencies and private entities tell time on the Moon.

(Credit: Cristóbal Alvarado Minic/Wikimedia Commons)

Organizations have historically used their own terrestrial time zones to qualify lunar events. The ESA says that deep space antennas have allowed organizations to keep onboard chronometers synchronized with time measurements here on Earth, which is crucial to facilitating two-way communications. But as more organizations plan their lunar missions, this method could become messy. If and when two organizations are on or around the Moon simultaneously, they’ll need to communicate with one another, and using different time zones will make this confusing. Interoperability takes these complications to the next level: It’s hard to coordinate with someone when they’re using a different time zone, especially when events need to be timed down to the minute or second.

Setting a “lunar time zone” won’t be easy, though. Clocks on the Moon run faster than what we consider normal here on Earth, gaining about 56 microseconds daily. This itself isn’t consistent; how much faster these clocks run depends on their exact position on the Moon, causing organizations to wonder whether the Moon’s time zone should be kept independent from Earth.

An agreed-upon time system will also require organizations to settle on a selenocentric reference frame, which maintains a consistent measurement of precise differences between given points. Organizations have done this before for the sake of global navigation satellite systems, or GNSS, but this time, their reference frame will need to be practical for astronauts orbiting near or directly exploring the Moon.

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