NASA Goes Metric to the Moon

When NASA returns U.S. astronauts to the moon, they won’t travel a single mile — they’ll travel in kilometers.

The agency said it decided to use metric units for operations on the lunar surface.

The change will standardize parts and tools, meaning, for example, Russian wrenches could be used to fix an air leak in a U.S.-built habitat, Space.com said.

It will also make communications easier, especially when determining how far to send a land rover for a space project.

While having used the metric system since the early 1990s, NASA said English units were still used on some missions. A few projects used both measurements, such as aboard the International Space Station.

The decision comes after a number of meetings between NASA and other space agencies around the world, where metric rules.

I think NASA has been seen as maybe a bit stubborn by other space agencies in the past, so this was important as a gesture of our willingness to be cooperative when it comes to the moon, said Jeff Volosin, strategy development lead for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.