Metric moon

Put away your inches and miles, Americans, and start thinking along with the vast majority of the world in centimeters and kilometers. If, that is, you plan to go to the moon after 2020 when American space policy says we’ll have a base there. NASA has so decreed, deciding only the metric system will be in use on our portion of lunar soil. Set aside the fact of it being thirteen years in the future, far enough away that the current Congress won’t have to worry about justifying spending tax money for it, which suggests it may not, in fact, become reality. In which case maybe it won’t actually ever influence our continued stubborn use of English measurement (which not even the English officially use anymore, but only us, Liberia and Burma). Which might be a good thing when you think of all the vehicle mechanics and home handymen who would have to switch out their inch-based wrenches, nuts, screws and other devices for metric ones. But there’s already some betting that the residents of any future moon base may, in fact, be speaking Chinese, and they use the metric system, so maybe it’s a good time to start prepping for the inevitable. Me? I’m too old to worry about it.