NASA will set the official time and time zone for the Moon
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The US government on Tuesday instructed the National Aerospace Agency to develop a single time standard for the Moon and other celestial bodies in the Solar System. As Reuters reports, the United States wants to extend accepted international standards to space. This is happening in light of the fact that more and more countries are announcing plans to explore the Moon, Mars, and outer space in general.
According to the White House order, which is cited by Reuters, NASA along with other official organizations must submit a regulation of “coordinated lunar time” (LTC) by the end of 2026.
Setting the exact time for the Moon can be difficult due to the difference in gravity and other factors. The representative of the agency, Kevin Coggins, said that ordinary terrestrial clocks on the Moon can give deviations, and for accurate measurements there, new instruments developed specifically for space conditions may be needed. For example, it could be an atomic clock.
A single time standard for the Moon is necessary to ensure synchronization of data transmission between the Earth, the Moon’s satellites, future lunar bases and astronauts.
- In January, the NASA press service announced that the space agency plans to send a ship with four astronauts on a flight around the moon in 2025, and in 2026 it will carry out the first landing of an astronaut on the lunar surface since the Apollo program of the 1970s.
- Chinese developers announced that they intend to carry out the first landing of a Chinese taikonaut on the moon by 2030. Recently, India also directed its scientific devices to the moon, and its space agency mentioned the possibility of sending a man to the moon by 2040.
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