Lunar Time Zone

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The last human being to st foot on the moon was astronaut Eugene Cernan who did that deed on December 11, 1972.   As the years slowly began to drag on after that flight (Apollo 17), it was beginning to look as though space exploration beyond the Earth's orbit had ground to a halt.  

But now, more than a half-century later, there is a renewed interest by several world governments as well as a couple of private individuals for once again sending humanity beyond the mundane orbit of the Earth.  The United States' Artemis space exploration program currently has plans to resume landing humans on the moon in September of 2026 in a program that will eventually feature the first woman and the first person of color to traverse the surface of the moon.  One of the goals for this new round of visits to the moon will be to begin establishing plans for it to serve as a launch site for deep space missions.

However, before the next group of lunar astronauts head into space two-and-a-half years from now, there is still a lot of prep work to be done, and one of the items on that list is the establishment of a time zone for the moon - because time in space varies slightly from time on Earth due to gravity and some other scientific factors.   Time on the moon moves at 58.7 microseconds (millionths of a second) faster than it does on Earth.  This week the White House sent a memo to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) instructing it to establish celestial time standards for safety and accuracy.

Steve Welby, the Deputy Director for National Security of the US Office and Science and Technology Policy said:

"A consistent definition of time among operators in space is critical to successful space situational awareness capabilities, navigation, and communications, all of which are foundational to enable interoperability across the US government and with international partners."

(People with the ability to speak like that are generally able to find a cubicle that they can call home somewhere within a government bureaucracy.)

So the moon will soon have its own unique time zone.

I also heard on the radio this morning that NASA has engaged with multiple companies regarding the design and manufacture of cars that could be used to traverse the moon and take astronauts from one scenic wonder to another.  (I suspect they will quickly be referred to as "moon buggies," but I kind of like the sound of "lunar lizards."). 

There is already a system of latitude and longitude on the moon with the equator being halfway between the north and south poles, like it is on Earth, and the prime meridian running from pole to pole in the exact center of the moon as it appears from Earth - bisecting the "man-in-the-moon's face.

But would that be enough to keep Chuck and Buck from getting lost AF as they are out tooling around the moon in their lunar lizard?  I don't know this for a fact, but I am assuming that there is, as of yet, no GPS on the moon, and for that to happen someone like Jeff Bezos or Leon Elon Muskrat would have to rush in throw up a hairnet of satellites which would tarnish the view of the moon from Earth, a view that has inspired lovers and vampires since antiquity.

But I wander . . . over yonder.

Perhaps the moon's next surge of tourists could get by with lunar roadsigns - and, of course, the occasional billboard - or perhaps some system of zip codes.

There are so many wonderful things that our civilization can do to enhance future life on the moon.

(And will that new lunar time zone come with Daylight Savings Time?  Enquiring minds want to know!)