International community prepares to establish lunar time standards

Tokyo (ANTARA) - Various nations are preparing to establish a unified lunar time standard during an international conference in Paris to discuss the issue amidst global competition to build lunar mission stations.

Member states will discuss the matter during the General Conference on Weights and Measures, which establishes global measurement standards, alongside plans for the development of permanent mission stations and lunar navigation, which are set to be accelerated starting from 2030.

China and the United States are the primary nations with plans to land astronauts on the Moon and utilise lunar resources.

According to the theory of general relativity, time on the Moon passes slightly faster than on Earth because lunar gravity is only one-sixth of Earth’s gravity. Consequently, lunar time is approximately 56 microseconds faster per day than on Earth.

This time difference between Earth and the Moon is believed to pose potential problems for future lunar missions. For instance, when constructing bases on the Moon, operators must know the exact location where work is being performed. To achieve this, signals from satellites orbiting the Moon will be used to calculate positions, similar to the GPS system on Earth.

Mamoru Sekido, a research manager at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, stated that international cooperation to coordinate and unify satellite time standards is critically important for lunar development.

Currently, two proposals have emerged for establishing lunar time. The first proposal involves using a hypothetical clock at the Moon’s centre of mass and calculating time from that point. The second proposal suggests using actual clocks placed at an average altitude of the lunar surface as a reference, a method similar to how time is determined on Earth.