NASA plans to set a “reference lunar time”

United States – Last Tuesday, the White House directed NASA to create a unified time standard for the Moon and other celestial bodies, as governments and private companies compete in space.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has instructed the US space agency to formulate a plan, by the end of 2026, for a standard called Coordinated Lunar Time.

“As NASA, private companies, and space agencies around the world launch missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, it is important that we set celestial time standards for safety and accuracy,” Steve Welby, deputy director of national security at OSTP, said in a statement.

He explained that time “passes differently” depending on locations in space, providing an example of time passing slowly where gravity is strongest, that is, near celestial bodies.

“Consistent definition of time between operators in space is critical to the success of space situational awareness, navigation, and communications capabilities,” Welby added.

The White House explained that the goal is to link Lunar Coordinated Time, or LTC, to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is currently the primary time standard used around the world to regulate time on Earth.

NASA has received directives to work with the Departments of Commerce, Defense, State, and Transportation to present a standard time strategy that will improve navigation and other operations for missions in cislunar space (the area between the Earth and the Moon).

The new standard will focus on four features: traceability according to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), sufficient accuracy to support precise navigation and science, resilience to loss of contact with Earth, and scalability to environments beyond cislunar space.

“Just as terrestrial time is determined by a set of atomic clocks on Earth, a set of clocks on the Moon may determine lunar time,” OSTP said.

Source: ScienceAlert