Fri Sep 13 13:47:53 UTC 2024: ## NASA Takes the Lead on Establishing Coordinated Lunar Time
**Washington D.C. -** As humans prepare for a return to the moon, NASA is leading the effort to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time (CLT) standard. This initiative, part of the Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) program, aims to create a unified timekeeping system for the lunar surface.
The need for CLT is becoming increasingly crucial as the Artemis program aims to establish a sustained presence on the moon and as commercial space activity grows.
“With more nations active at the moon, there is a greater need for time standardization,” said Ben Ashman of the SCaN program. “A shared definition of time is an important part of safe, resilient, and sustainable operations.”
The Biden administration has mandated the establishment of CLT by December 2026, with NASA tasked to provide a finalized strategy.
A uniform lunar time zone is essential because the moon’s weaker gravity causes time to pass slightly faster there than on Earth, a phenomenon predicted by Einstein’s theory of special relativity. While this difference is small, it has significant implications for human space travel, potentially disrupting the precise timing needed for activities like spacecraft landings and communication.
Therefore, a new “master Moon time” has been formulated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to serve as the timekeeping reference for the entire lunar surface.
“It’s like having the entire moon synchronized to one ‘time zone’ adjusted for the moon’s gravity, rather than having clocks gradually drift out of sync with Earth’s time,” explained NIST physicist Bijunath Patla.
The establishment of CLT is also essential for building a lunar GPS system, which will be crucial for navigating and positioning human activity on the moon. This system, utilizing precise atomic clocks in lunar orbit, will enable more accurate landings and efficient resource exploration.
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