Space officials want to create a time zone for the moon

Pushes from officials with the European Space Agency (ESA) are part of a growing call among astronomers focused on lunar missions to create a time zone for our moon.

As it stands, teams on lunar missions currently use the Earth-based time zone of the nation managing the mission.

Among the issues space explorers face is how to better sync the various missions.

The ESA said in a statement, “We agreed on the importance and urgency of defining a common lunar reference time, which is internationally accepted and toward which all lunar systems and users may refer to.”

Experts on the matter still haven’t come to a consensus on exactly how it would all work.

ESA navigation engineer Pietro Giordano said in that statement, “A joint international effort is now being launched toward achieving this.”

Having a lunar time zone would create easier communication standards and navigation for nations headed to the moon, and a planned global satellite navigation system on the lunar surface might make moon missions even more common.

NASA plans to send astronauts to the moon in 2025, more than 50 years after their last mission.

By Scripps News.