For the United States to set international norms beyond Earth orbit, the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has directed the US space agency to develop a plan for a standard it calls Coordinated Lunar Time by the end of 2026.
“As NASA, private companies and space agencies around the world launch missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond, it’s important to establish skytime standards to ensure safety and accuracy,” Steve Welby, OSTP’s deputy director for national security, said in a statement.
He noted that “time passes differently” depending on one’s position in space, and gave the example of time passing more slowly where gravity is stronger, such as near celestial bodies.
“Time consistency between space operators is critical to successful space situational awareness, navigation and communications,” Welby said.
According to the White House, it is aimed that the coordinated lunar time (eng. Coordinate Lunar TimeLTC) would be linked to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the main time standard currently used around the world to determine time on Earth.
The White House has directed NASA to work with the Departments of Commerce, Defense, State and Transportation to develop a time-standard strategy that will improve navigation and other operations for missions, particularly in cislunar space, the area between the Earth and the Moon.
The US plans to return to the moon in 2026, which will be the first human landing on the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
