NASA gives the moon its own standard time zone – why? : Science: Tech Times

By John Lopez, Tech Times
Apr 21, 2024 11:19 AM EDT

A memo from Washington directs NASA to establish a standard time zone for the moon.

According to the April 2 memo, NASA has until the end of 2026 to establish a ‘Coulated Lunar Time (LTC)’, a deadline that coincides with Artemis III, humanity’s first mission on course to reach the South Pole to land on the moon.

Taking into account the difference in gravity between the Earth and the moon, which makes the moon time faster by 58.7 microseconds every day, this new standardization will make space travel more precise.

Why does NASA set a standard time zone for the moon?

Space travel is a precise undertaking. As experts at NASA put it, “Without good and accurate measurements, no NASA mission could be successfully accomplished.”

This new guidance from the US Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) emphasizes that the new CLT will have the following features:

Traceability to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

The promising Artemis mission is not only led by the Americans. Under the Artemis Accords, the space program currently has 36 countries signed up as partners, with Uruguay being the most recent signatory.

Because they are in sync with Coordinated Universal Time, the US and all its partners around the world now have a clear and uniform reference time to track the events of the Artemis mission.

Accuracy sufficient to support precise navigation and science

CLT, taking into account the slight time dilation caused by the difference in gravity and eliminating the need to rely on a signal from Earth to reach a spacecraft and vice versa, can help spacecraft achieve more accurate timing and positioning reach.

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(Photo: LAURENT EMMANUEL/AFP via Getty Images)

TOPSHOT – A photo taken on May 13, 2019 shows a view of the moon in Cannes, southern France. – The moon is steadily shrinking, causing ripples on its surface and earthquakes, according to an analysis of images captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), published on Monday, May 13, 2019.

Resilience against loss of contact with the earth)

Instruments and people that lose contact with the earth can operate independently thanks to CLT.

Scalability to space environments beyond the Earth-Moon system.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory explains (via Aljazeera): “A two-way system that sends a signal from Earth to a spacecraft, back to Earth, and then back to the spacecraft would take an average of 40 minutes. Imagine the GPS on your phone it took 40 minutes to calculate your position. You may miss your exit or be on the highway for several exits before it catches up with you.”

“If humans travel to the Red Planet (Mars), it would be better if the system was one-way, allowing explorers to immediately determine their current position rather than waiting for that information to come back from Earth,” JPL adds.

As stated in the memo, “NASA will also consider Coordinated Moon Time (LTC), as described in this memorandum, as part of its annual Moon-to-Mars Architecture Concept Review cycle, no later than December 31, 2024.”

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