On Tuesday, the Biden White House directed NASA to establish a standard time zone on the moon.
In a memo obtained by Reuters, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has instructed NASA to establish a standard of time for the moon and other planets.
The memo stated the U.S. government plans to establish Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) by the end of 2026.
NASA’s space communications and navigation chief, Kevin Coggins, shared that a Coordinated Lunar Time is needed because “The same clock that we have on Earth would move at a different rate on the moon.”
Exclusive: The White House directed NASA to establish a unified standard of time for the moon and other celestial bodies, as the United States aims to set international norms in space amid a growing lunar race among nations and private companies https://t.co/HJYCCBDRjh
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 2, 2024
Per Reuters:
The White House on Tuesday directed NASA to establish a unified standard of time for the moon and other celestial bodies, as the United States aims to set international norms in space amid a growing lunar race among nations and private companies.
The head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), according to a memo seen by Reuters, instructed the space agency to work with other parts of the U.S. government to devise a plan by the end of 2026 for setting what it called a Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC).
The differing gravitational force, and potentially other factors, on the moon and on other celestial bodies change how time unfolds relative to how it is perceived on Earth. Among other things, the LTC would provide a time-keeping benchmark for lunar spacecraft and satellites that require extreme precision for their missions.
“The same clock that we have on Earth would move at a different rate on the moon,” Kevin Coggins, NASA’s space communications and navigation chief, said in an interview.
The memo also shared that time moves quicker on the moon relative to Earth due to the moon’s gravitational field strength.
NASA has been busy in the last several months.
As the Gateway Pundit previously reported, the space agency plans to shoot three sounding rockets during the solar eclipse on April 8th.
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