White House Directs NASA to Give Moon Its Own Time Zone by 2026

• The White House has instructed NASA to create a standard time for the Moon by the end of 2026 to simplify lunar exploration.
• In the coming years, NASA is planning to take a team of astronauts to the Moon. The standardization of lunar time is expected to help that mission.
• The European Space Agency is also working on a similar project.

On Tuesday (2nd April, 2024), the White House directed NASA to create a new time zone for the Moon by the end of 2026. At the time of writing, it has been decided that it will be called The Coordinated Lunar Time or LTC.

The news was confirmed by a memo from Arati Prabhakar (head of the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)) that said that the project will be a joint collaboration between NASA and some US agencies.

Why Is This Important?Creating a time zone for the Moon is part of the US's latest efforts to create a more structured space exploration framework for the upcoming lunar mission Artemis-3.

Artemis-3 will be the first major human-driven lunar exploration program since Apollo 17 in December 1972. A team of astronauts is set to land on the Moon's south pole, which reportedly has a vast storage of water-ice in craters - because sunlight never hits that region.

Another factor that will make this a landmark mission is that this is the first time a woman and a person of color will land on the Moon. If everything goes according to plan, this mission will also be the stepping stone to sending human expeditions to Mars.

It's quite clear that the mission is huge-several private companies, countries, and spacecraft are involved. Considering the complexity of the mission and the number of parties involved, it's important they have the best tools in place to simplify coordination.

Speaking about the same, an OSTP (Office of Science and Technology Policy) official said that:

• A standard lunar time will help them ensure that all the data transferred between the astronauts, satellites, bases and the Earth is in sync.
• Accurate timing will also help them effectively navigate throughout the journey.

Imagine if the world wasn't syncing their clocks at the same time - how disruptive that might be and how challenging everyday things become.OSTP officialThe Difference In Earth Time and Lunar TimeThe way a clock on Earth works is a lot different than on the Moon. If you're using the same clock, then on average it will lose about 58.7 microseconds per Earth day when on the Moon. That's because the gravitational force on the Moon is weaker than the Earth, so time moves faster there.

While 58.7 microseconds might not seem that significant, it plays an important role when it comes to managing lunar spacecrafts. You see, when you send people to the Moon for exploration, the timing has to be extremely precise-and there's no better way to get the timing right than using the local time.

Even the Earth has its own local time that's measured with the help of the hundreds of atomic clocks that are stationed around the world. So, it's only fair that other planetary bodies like the Moon also get their own standard time.

It's worth noting that NASA is not the only one working on creating a standard lunar time. The European Space Agency is running a similar project to simplify lunar exploration.

However, this doesn't mean that every single space agency will have its own lunar time. In the end, the official standard lunar time will have to be internationally agreed upon by the 36 nations participating in the Artemis Accords-the agreement that sets the rules for activities on the Moon and in space.

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