Moon is set to get its own time zone as launch for permanent Nasa lunar ‘colony’ draws near

The Moon could soon get its own time zone  Credit: NASA

 

Moon is set to get its own time zone as launch for permanent Nasa lunar ‘colony’ draws near

 

Charlotte Edwards,  US SUN Assistant Technology and Science Editor

 

Published: 11:14 ET, Feb 28 2023

Updated: 11:22 ET, Feb 28 2023

 

WITH plenty of manned missions to the lunar surface planned by multiple space agencies, pressure to give the Moon a timezone 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 back on Earth.

 

This means a lot of Moon missions have been following different time scales.

 

As more space agencies head up there together and work on missions, time-keeping on the Moon will become more crucial.

 

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

 

What time the clocks will say on these bases was a topic at the ESA’s ESTEC technology centre in November 2022.