Lunar O'Clock (3/3/23)

Happy Friday, team. Welcome to the 311 space cadets who joined the Payload rocket ship this week. Good to have ya onboard. Hope all 16,000+ of you have a great weekend.

In today's edition... ⏲️ It’s Moon O’Clock 💭 Poll: ULA's buyer 📈 Payload Insights📚 Weekend Picks

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Keeping Lunar Time

What time is it on the Moon?

The answer, it turns out, is a little complicated. As several countries across the globe collectively spanning just about every time zone prepare for the impending cislunar economy and get ready to send humans to the lunar surface, it may be time to put some standard processes—like an agreed-upon timekeeping system—in place.

This week, ESA released a statement proposing the creation of a lunar time zone.

“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,” noted ESA navigation system engineer Pietro Giordano in the statement. “A joint international effort is now being launched towards achieving this.”

It’s not just about the time

At a meeting in the Netherlands last year, ESA member nations discussed the need for shared communications and navigation services like the ones used on Earth. Ultimately, ESA plans to participate in LunaNet, a NASA-led initiative to establish these processes on the Moon.

Not so simple: Establishing a lunar time zone comes fraught with technical issues.

• A day on the Moon lasts 29.5 Earth days.

• Clocks actually run faster on the Moon, gaining about 56 microseconds per day.

• There’s also a subtle difference between how objects in lunar orbit keep time vs. objects on the lunar surface.

The world will also have to settle the question of who gets to set the schedule on the Moon. The ISS runs on UTC, which lands somewhere between the preferred time zones of each of the participating agencies. ESA says an international team is looking into the best way to set the clocks.

Payload Reader Poll: Who Will Buy ULA?

United Launch Alliance, a joint venture formed in 2006, may soon have a new corporate home. Co-owners Boeing ($BA) and Lockheed Martin ($LMT) have hired Morgan Stanley and Bain to put ULA up for sale, according to Ars Technica’s Eric Berger.

ULA is eyeing May 4 for the maiden launch of its new rocket—which is an absolutely electric coincidence for Star Wars nerds everywhere. That rocket, the Vulcan Centaur, will fly Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander as its primary passenger, with Amazon’s Kuipersat-1 and -2 hitching a ride as well.

Here’s where you come in…

You’re a smart, space-savvy bunch.

So, let’s hear from you: assuming ULA is sold, who will the mystery buyer end up being? We've already gotten amazing responses from some of you, which we'll highlight—along with the full results—on Monday.

Payload Insights

Payload’s Mo Islam recently released his prediction for SpaceX’s 2023 revenue, in an analysis that also included revised 2022 projections. We’ve converted Mo’s analysis into the graphic below for our more visually inclined readers.

Read the full writeup here.

In Other News

• The White House released the National Cybersecurity Strategy.

• China’s Shenzhou-15 crew completed a spacewalk off the Tiangong station.

• Rivada has purchased twelve Falcon 9 rides for the launch of its first 300 Terran Orbital-made satellites.

• Lynk demonstrated its direct-to-cell connectivity in the Philippines with Globe, a Manila-based telco.

• Crew-6 docked with the ISS at 1:40am Eastern this morning. The real question is what was the lunar time when they docked?

• Satellite trails are obscuring some Hubble Space telescope images.

The View from Space