Coordinated lunar time should be developed by NASA, and the system would be very useful for space missions.
The White House is asking NASA to figure out how to accurately determine time on the moon, he wrote Watchman. A March 2 memorandum from the head of the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) called on the space agency to work with other U.S. and foreign space agencies to develop a moon-centered time system.
Since our celestial companion has less gravity, time there passes slightly faster than on Earth, 58.7 microseconds per day. “The atomic clock on the moon ticks at a different rate than the one on Earth,” he said. Kevin Cogginschief of communications and navigation at NASA.
Among other things, LTC will provide a timing standard for spacecraft and lunar satellites whose missions require extreme precision. Starting in September 2026, as part of the Artemis program, NASA will send astronauts to the Moon again for the first time since the Apollo era, with the long-term goal of establishing a local base to support future Mars missions.
However, without a lunar time standard, the integrity of data transmission between spacecraft and the synchronization of communications between Earth, lunar satellites, bases, and astronauts may be compromised. Differences in time can lead to errors in mapping celestial objects, as well as in determining locations.
Modern life on Earth is unthinkable without Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is based on ultra-precise atomic clocks. To develop LTC, atomic clocks will also be needed, this time on the Moon.
Establishing a new lunar time will certainly require international cooperation, and the Artemis Accords, an agreement system for the peaceful exploration of space, could help with that. However, it may be a problem that the US's two main rivals, China and Russia, are not part of the alliance.
