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 times zones that are dedicated to the nation that manages 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.”
If space navigators can figure out how to put the plan into motion, it could create an easier path forward, as NASAplans to send astronauts to the moon more than 50 years after their last mission.
Having a lunar time zone would create easier communication standards and navigation for nations headed to the moon.
And a planned global satellite navigation systemon the lunar surface might make moon missions even more common.
