Most of us have at some point stopped to gaze up at the moon - but have you ever wondered what time it is up there?

For those who have, their question may soon have an answer, as space organisations are considering giving the moon its very own time zone.

Dozens of lunar missions, including ones to build bases and other habitats on the moon, are planned for the decade ahead, the European Space Agency (ESA) has said.

Space organisations began discussions about lunar time-keeping at the ESA's ESTEC technology centre in the Netherlands in November 2022.

ESA navigation system engineer Pietro Giordano said: "We agreed on the importance and urgency of defining a common lunar reference time, which is internationally accepted and towards which all lunar systems and users may refer to.

"A joint international effort is now being launched towards achieving this."

Up until now, each new mission to the moon has been operated on its own timescale, with deep space antennas used to keep onboard chronometers synchronised with the time on Earth.

Beyond astronauts and ground controllers being able to tell the time on the moon, the need for standard time-keeping in space is also essential for guidance and navigation.

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Just as GPS systems on Earth require precise coordination and timing, so too will any infrastructure that is built and operated on the moon.

NASA's Gateway station will serve as a multi-purpose outpost orbiting the moon when it begins operating sometime after November 2024.

It will be open to astronaut stays and provide support for humans to return to the moon's surface.

Meanwhile, the ESA will be putting down its own Argonaut lander on the moon.

These missions will not only be operating on or around the moon at the same time - they will also be interacting and potentially relaying communications for one another and performing joint observations.

The ESA has said that among the current topics under debate is whether a single organisation should be responsible for setting and maintaining lunar time, and whether it should be set on an independent basis or be kept synchronised with Earth.

The international team working on the subject will face "considerable technical issues", the ESA has said.

Why do clocks work differently on the moon?

One challenge is that clocks on the moon run faster than their equivalents on Earth, as clocks tick slower in stronger gravitational fields, therefore gaining around 56 microseconds or millionths of a second per day.

Their exact rate depends on their position on the moon, ticking at a different speed on the lunar surface than when they are in orbit.

Bernhard Hufenbach, a member of the Moonlight Management Team from ESA's Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration, said: "Of course, the agreed time system will also have to be practical for astronauts.

"This will be quite a challenge on a planetary surface where in the equatorial region each day is 29.5 days long, including freezing fortnight-long lunar nights, with the whole of Earth just a small blue circle in the dark sky.

"But having established a working time system for the moon, we can go on to do the same for other planetary destinations."

I think 56 microseconds a day, or 1 second every 489 years, is not really going to be an appreciable difference to really constitute a challenge.

The following submission statement was provided by /u/QuickOliveSpring:

Most of us have at some point stopped to gaze up at the moon - but have you ever wondered what time it is up there?

For those who have, their question may soon have an answer, as space organisations are considering giving the moon its very own time zone.

Dozens of lunar missions, including ones to build bases and other habitats on the moon, are planned for the decade ahead, the European Space Agency (ESA) has said.

Space organisations began discussions about lunar time-keeping at the ESA's ESTEC technology centre in the Netherlands in November 2022.

ESA navigation system engineer Pietro Giordano said: "We agreed on the importance and urgency of defining a common lunar reference time, which is internationally accepted and towards which all lunar systems and users may refer to.

"A joint international effort is now being launched towards achieving this."

Up until now, each new mission to the moon has been operated on its own timescale, with deep space antennas used to keep onboard chronometers synchronised with the time on Earth.

Beyond astronauts and ground controllers being able to tell the time on the moon, the need for standard time-keeping in space is also essential for guidance and navigation.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Women at centre of NASA moon race

Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson of NASA says 'there are no boundaries' as she ushers in a new age of space exploration.

Just as GPS systems on Earth require precise coordination and timing, so too will any infrastructure that is built and operated on the moon.

NASA's Gateway station will serve as a multi-purpose outpost orbiting the moon when it begins operating sometime after November 2024.

It will be open to astronaut stays and provide support for humans to return to the moon's surface.

Meanwhile, the ESA will be putting down its own Argonaut lander on the moon.

These missions will not only be operating on or around the moon at the same time - they will also be interacting and potentially relaying communications for one another and performing joint observations.

The ESA has said that among the current topics under debate is whether a single organisation should be responsible for setting and maintaining lunar time, and whether it should be set on an independent basis or be kept synchronised with Earth.

The international team working on the subject will face "considerable technical issues", the ESA has said.

Why do clocks work differently on the moon?

One challenge is that clocks on the moon run faster than their equivalents on Earth, as clocks tick slower in stronger gravitational fields, therefore gaining around 56 microseconds or millionths of a second per day.

Their exact rate depends on their position on the moon, ticking at a different speed on the lunar surface than when they are in orbit.

Bernhard Hufenbach, a member of the Moonlight Management Team from ESA's Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration, said: "Of course, the agreed time system will also have to be practical for astronauts.

"This will be quite a challenge on a planetary surface where in the equatorial region each day is 29.5 days long, including freezing fortnight-long lunar nights, with the whole of Earth just a small blue circle in the dark sky.

"But having established a working time system for the moon, we can go on to do the same for other planetary destinations."

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/11e4zfy/the_moon_could_get_its_own_time_zone_but_clocks/jaccwb2/

Alright everyone, time for the bi-millenial leap second adjustment. Everyone prepare yourselves!

When you are hurtling around a cellestial body at several miles per second it makes small differences in time important.

I guess it depends on if we are setting up Lunar colonies or just sending robots over.

Reading "Lunar Standard Time" would be so fucking cool. knowing what time it is on the moon and what the schedule it would typically be since there probably wont be a Day/Night cycle and definitely no seasons.

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Yeah, saying gateway will launch in 2024 is pure fantasy.

There is a day/night cycle, but it's 29.5 earth days long from 'noon' to 'noon', so they'll live in darkness two earth weeks at a time

THat's true but i thought any colony built there wouldn't want to be purely in the sun or dark side of the moon

They’re still using mechanical clocks? Weird.

I’m going to start scheduling my meeting on Lunar Time.

There is no dark side of the moon. It's a misconception. The moon rotates just like the earth does, but it takes nearly a month to rotate once. It's in nearly perfect sync with the earth, which is why we only ever see the one side. But when it's a 'new moon ', aka fully dark to us, the other side is in full sun. You're seeing the moon day happen every month with the phases of the moon. So any moon base is gonna be dark two weeks a month.

It's not about the human-perceived clocks. It's about the hyper-precision clocks necessary to do things involving radio timing. That's critical to -- or even the very foundation of -- a lot of technologies we take for granted, like rapid communications, radio positioning systems, or accurately tracking orbiting bodies.

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I see thank you for the information

I don’t think the issue is about mechanical or not. We‘re talking about the interaction of space-time and gravitational fields here