{"id":1580,"date":"2024-04-04T09:14:28","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T09:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/04\/moon-to-get-its-own-time-zone-created-by-nasa-but-clocks-work-differently-there\/"},"modified":"2024-04-04T09:14:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T09:14:28","slug":"moon-to-get-its-own-time-zone-created-by-nasa-but-clocks-work-differently-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/04\/moon-to-get-its-own-time-zone-created-by-nasa-but-clocks-work-differently-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Moon to get its own time zone created by NASA \u2013 but clocks work differently there"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The moon will get its own time zone after the White House directed NASA to develop a unified lunar time standard by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

The Coordinated Lunar Time, or LTC, would provide a time-keeping benchmark for lunar spacecraft and satellites that will require extreme precision for their missions.<\/p>\n

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Having a standard lunar time is vital – and complicated – because time unfolds differently on the moon<\/strong> compared to how it is perceived on Earth due to the difference in gravitational force.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

For a person on the moon, an Earth-based clock would appear to lose on average 58.7 microseconds per Earth-day, the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) said in a memo.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Other periodic variations would further drift moon time from Earth time, Arati Prabhakar added.<\/p>\n

The OSTP instructed NASA to work with other parts of the US government to devise a plan by the end of 2026 for developing LTC.<\/p>\n

“Think of the atomic clocks at the US Naval Observatory [in Washington]. They’re the heartbeat of the nation,
synchronising everything. You’re going to want a heartbeat on the moon,” Mr Coggins said.<\/p>\n

Under NASA’s Artemis programme, the space agency is aiming take a team of astronauts to the moon<\/strong> in the coming years for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972.<\/p>\n

Dozens of companies, spacecraft and countries are involved in the effort.<\/p>\n

An OSTP official said that without a unified lunar time standard it would be challenging to ensure that data transfers between spacecraft are secure and that communications between Earth, satellites, bases and astronauts are synchronised.<\/p>\n

Discrepancies in time also could lead to errors in mapping and locating positions on or orbiting the moon, they added.<\/p>\n

“Imagine if the world wasn’t syncing their clocks to the same time – how disruptive that might be and how challenging everyday things become,” the official said.<\/p>\n

On Earth, most clocks and time zones are based on Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, which relies on a vast global network of atomic clocks around the world.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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