NASA Is Giving the Moon Its Own Standard Time Zone — Why?

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

According to the memo issued on April 2, NASA has until late 2026 to set a "Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC)," a deadline that coincides the Artemis III, which will be mankind's first mission on course to land at the lunar South Pole.

Taking into account the difference in gravity between Earth and the moon, which causes lunar time to move 58.7 microseconds faster every day, this new standardization is set to make space travel more precise.

Why Is NASA Establishing a Standard Time Zone for the Moon?

Space travel is a precise endeavor. As experts at NASA put it: "Without proper and accurate measurements, none of NASA's missions could be successfully accomplished."

This new directive 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 solely run by the Americans. According to the Artemis Accords, the space program currently has 36 countries signed as partners, with Uruguay being the most recent signee.

Being in sync with the Coordinated Universal Time means the US and all of its partners from around the world now have a distinct and uniform reference time to keep track of the events of the Artemis mission.

• Accuracy sufficient to support precision navigation and science

CLT, taking into consideration the slight time dilation caused by the difference in gravity and removing 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.

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

• Resilience to loss of contact with Earth)

Instruments and people losing contact with 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 to the spacecraft again would take an average of 40 minutes. Imagine if the GPS on your phone took 40 minutes to calculate your position. You might miss your turn or be several exits down the highway before it caught up with you."

If humans travel to the Red Planet [Mars], it would be better if the system was one-way, allowing the 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 include consideration of Coordinated Lunar 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."