The White House commissioned NASA to create a time standard on the Moon

The US Presidential Administration has instructed the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as well as a number of other departments, to develop a plan to implement the so-called Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) by the end of 2026. This was reported by Reuters on Tuesday, April 2.

Due to differences in gravity and other factors on the Moon and other celestial bodies, the perception of time changes. “The same clock that we have on Earth would run at a different speed on the Moon,” Kevin Coggins, head of NASA’s space communications and navigation division, explained to Reuters.

LTC will become the time measurement standard for lunar spacecraft and satellites, which require extreme precision to complete their missions. For a person on the Moon, Earth’s clock would lose an average of 58.7 microseconds per day. There may be other deviations that further move lunar time away from Earth, according to a note from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

On Earth, the exact time is regulated based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This standard relies on an extensive network of atomic clocks around the world. OSTP admits that for a unified lunar time standard, atomic clocks will have to be deployed on the Moon.