European Space Agency Calls for Giving Moon its Own Time Zone

European space officials have called for establishing a separate time zone on the moon.

The European Space Agency (ESA) said the idea was discussed at a recent meeting held at the agency's Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands.

ESA said the effort is part of a larger project to create a complete communication and navigation system for the moon. Space officials say such a system will be necessary to support a growing number of planned launches to the moon in coming years.

A series of space operations around the moon will require spacecraft and controllers "to communicate together and fix their positions independently from Earth," ESA said in a statement. Currently, moon operations run on the time of the country that launched the spacecraft. But ESA officials say this will have to change when more countries and private space companies start launching their own moon missions.

ESA has partnered with the American space agency NASA on several planned lunar projects, or missions. ESA helped build NASA's Orion spacecraft, which is expected to transport American astronauts back to the moon by the mid-2020s. NASA reported it was pleased with Orion's last uncrewed test mission late last year.

ESA has also been involved in planning and development operations for a lunar project called Gateway¹. Private companies have been asked to develop living spaces, called habitats, for NASA and ESA, as part of the Gateway project.

NASA has described Gateway as a small spaceship that would remain in orbit around the moon. It would be designed as a living space for astronauts and as a laboratory for science activities. Gateway would give the astronauts a base for making trips to the moon, and possibly in the future to Mars.

Pietro Giordano is a navigation system engineer for ESA. He said after the issue was considered at the recent ESA meeting, "a joint² international effort is now being launched" to establish a lunar time zone.

ESA says the planned lunar communications and navigation systems will perform much better if they "employ the same timescale, along with the many other crewed and uncrewed missions they will support."

NASA also had to deal with the time question while designing and building the International Space Station (ISS), which is nearing the 25th anniversary of the launch of its first piece.

The ISS does not have its own time zone. Instead, it runs on Coordinated³ Universal Time, or UTC, which is based on time kept by atomic clocks. This helps ease the time difference between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, as well as other space partners in Russia, Japan and Europe.

ESA says the international team looking at establishing a lunar time zone is debating whether a single organization should set and keep time on the moon.

There are also technical questions to consider. For example, clocks run faster on the moon than on Earth, gaining about 56 microseconds each day, officials said. The exact difference depends on the position of the clock and whether it is in orbit or on the lunar surface.

One of the most important things to consider is whether separate lunar time will be helpful and effective for the astronauts working there, said ESA official Bernhard Hufenbach.

"This will be quite a challenge," Hufenbach said in a statement. He noted⁴ that a day on the moon lasts as long as 29.5 days on Earth. Hufenbach added that after successfully establishing a working time system for the moon, "we can go on to do the same for other planetary destinations."

Words in This Story

navigate⁵ – v. to find the right direction for traveling by using maps or other equipment

uncrewed –adj. (neologism) without a crew, not operated by people

time zone –n. one of the world's 24 divisions where a certain time is officially observed

challenge – n. a difficult task or problem; something that is hard to do

destination – n. the place where someone or something is going

1 gateway   

n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法

参考例句：

• Hard work is the gateway to success.努力工作是通往成功之路。
• A man collected tolls at the gateway.一个人在大门口收通行费。

2 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

3 coordinated   

adj.协调的

参考例句：

• The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
• The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。