MOON TIME ZONE
1. Context
The moon may get its own time Zone. The European Space Agency said that a universal timekeeping system for the moon is needed, but that many details remain to be worked out.
2. Why do we need a time zone for the moon?
The main objective of establishing a universal timekeeping system for the moon, the ESA said, is to streamline contact among the various countries and entities, public and private, that are coordinating trips to and around the moon.
3. Countries Planning Lunar Missions
- The discussion about how to do that is happening as things are starting to get busy on and above the lunar surface.
- The M1 lunar lander built by the Japanese company Ispace is set to arrive on the moon in April, when it will try to deploy a rover built by the United Arab Emirates, a robot built by Japan's space agency, JAXA; and other payloads.
- A six-legged cylindrical robot called the Nova-C lander was built by the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines and is expected to launch on SpaceX's Falcon 9 and land on the south pole of the moon in June.
- Additional uncrewed missions will land by the end of the year, according to Jack Burns, director of the Network for Exploration and Space Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
- Those missions, among other possible lunar landings, are happening as NASA prepares to send four astronauts into orbit around the moon next year.
- That mission will pave the way for the first crewed moon landing since Apollo 17 in December 1972, currently planned for 2025.
- The European Space Agency, meanwhile, is contributing to NASA's effort to build the Gateway lunar station, which will serve as a way station for future crews on their way to the lunar surface.
- Last year, China completed the construction of its own space station and previously hinted that Chinese astronauts would be on the moon by 2030.
- South Korea launched its own lunar spacecraft, Danuri, on a Space X Falcon rocket from Florida in August. It joined India's Chandrayaan-2 mission, as well as spacecraft from NASA and China, in its orbit of the moon.
4. Methods for establishing the Moon Time Zone
- A Universal timekeeping system for the moon is needed, but many details remain to be worked out.
- One of the questions that have yet to be settled was whether lunar time should be set on the moon or synchronized with Earth.
- Time on Earth is precisely tracked by atomic clocks, but synchronizing time on the moon is tricky because clocks run faster there, gaining around 56 microseconds, or millionths of a second, per day.
- Once a new lunar time zone is established, the methods used to create it will be useful for future space explorations.
- Astronauts could go to Mars in the next two or three decades and will face similar logistical hurdles that a Martian time zone could address.
5. Some important missions to Moon
Chandrayaan 1
Chandrayaan-1 was India's first lunar probe. It was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation in October 2008 and operated until August 2009. The mission included a lunar orbiter and an impactor. It was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, by the PSLV C-11 on 22 October 2008. The spacecraft was orbiting around the Moon at a height of 100 km from the lunar surface for chemical, mineralogical, and photo-geologic mapping of the Moon. The spacecraft carries 11 scientific instruments built in India, the USA, the UK, Germany, Sweden, and Bulgaria.
Soyuz spacecraft
- The Soyuz (SAW-yooz) is a Russian spacecraft. Astronauts and cosmonauts travel to the International Space Station on the Soyuz.
- The Soyuz transports crews to the International Space Station and returns them to Earth after their missions.
- The Soyuz is like a lifeboat for the space station. At least one Soyuz is always docked at the space station. If there is an emergency, the station crew can use the Soyuz to return to Earth.
- The Soyuz is the only means of reaching the ISS since the U.S. retired the space shuttle in 2011.
Chang’e 4
- Chang’e 4 is the fourth mission in the country’s lunar mission series which is being named after the Chinese moon goddess.
- The tasks of the Chang’e-4 probe include low-frequency radio astronomical observation, surveying the terrain and landforms, detecting the mineral composition, and measuring the neutron radiation and neutral atoms to study the environment on the far side of the moon.
Yutu-2
- It follows the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System China’s homegrown Global Positioning System that started worldwide service last month.
- The rover has been programmed to launch ground penetration radar that would help map the moon’s inner structures.
- It would also analyze soil and rock samples for minerals, apart from activating a radio telescope to search for possible signals from deep space.
For Prelims
| For Prelims: Lunar Missions, Chandrayan- 1, Soyuz spacecraft, Chang’e 4, Yutu-2, NASA, BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, JAXA, European Space Agency. |
Source: The Indian Express
