The US president has instructed NASA to work on a new ‘Coordinated Lunar Time’ – because there’s not much else going on on Earth is there
At times it can seem like we’re living through one of the bleakest periods in history. The climate crisis is raging on; millions have been displaced from their homes due to violence and conflict; millions more live in poverty, while corrupt elites get richer and richer. You’d hope that in a time racked by crises like these, world leaders would channel all their time, energy, and resources into alleviating suffering and laying the groundwork for the creation of a fairer world.
But no. When Joe Biden’s time as president is recorded in the annals of history, he’ll be remembered as the guy who spent the 2020s trying to figure out what time it is on the Moon.
That’s right – in a memorandum published on Tuesday, the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) instructed NASA and other US agencies to collaborate with international agencies to come up with a new time standard called ‘Coordinated Lunar Time’ or ‘LTC’ by the end of 2026.
As the United States is renewing efforts to establish a permanent presence on the lunar surface, they’re keen to establish a universally agreed-upon way of keeping track of time on the Moon as setting a standard will enable better coordination in ongoing Moon missions. According to OSTP deputy director for national security Steve Welby, a new standard is “critical to successful space situational awareness capabilities, navigation, and communications.”
‘Moon time’ wouldn’t be exactly the same as a time zone like those on Earth. As there is less gravity on the moon, time moves slightly quicker there, meaning every day on the moon is 58.7 microseconds shorter than on Earth. However, these differences are minor – it would take roughly 50 years to make up for just one single second of offset between the surface of Earth and the Moon.
“Time passes differently in different parts of space – for example, time appears to pass more slowly where gravity is stronger, like near celestial bodies – and as a result, the length of a second on Earth is different to an observer under different gravitational conditions, such as on the Moon,” Welby added.
“As NASA, private companies and space agencies around the world launch missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond, it’s important that we establish celestial time standards for safety and accuracy.”
NASA is also working on a communications and navigation network for the Moon called LunaNet for communications and navigation. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is also working on a positioning system to provide astronauts on the Moon with a service equivalent to GPS.