4 ms·
> There is no practical need to measure local time on the moon Could it be useful to know when the sun would rise and set, or when Earth rises and sets, for th
by wyldfire 4y ago
> There is no practical need to measure local time on the moon
Could it be useful to know when the sun would rise and set, or when Earth rises and sets, for the sake of having routines related to solar power or LOS communications? Having a Luna-native time-of-day might be handy for some things.
I think it makes some sense to come to an agreement, even if that agreement was to use UTC (TFA does mention that it's used for ISS).
- thaumasiotes 4y ago> Could it be useful to know when the sun would rise and set, or when Earth rises and sets, for the sake of having routines related to solar power or LOS communications? The sun rises and sets over exactly one (Earth) lunar month, 29.5 days. That's what the phases of the moon are, the progression of sunlight over the face of the moon. Earth never rises or sets; the near side of the moon always faces toward Earth, and the far side of the moon never faces toward Earth. (This is known as "tidelocking".) So no, neither of those could be useful.