A The White House joined what had already been defended by the European Space Agency and wants NASA to develop a new time zone for the Moon – Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC).
At issue, explains the BBC, is the difference in intensity of the gravitational field on the Moon, which causes time to pass faster compared to Earth. That’s about 58.7 microseconds per day which, although it doesn’t seem like much, can have a big impact on the synchronization of spacecraft.
“This fundamental theory of gravity in our Universe has the important consequence that time runs differently in different places in the Universe. Gravity on the Moon is slightly weaker and clocks work differently,” said Catherine Heymans, director of the Observatory Real, in Edinburgh, Scotland, speaking to BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme.
On Earth, time is measured by hundreds of atomic clocks spread across the planet. These measure the change in the energetic state of atoms to record time to the nanosecond. If they were placed on the Moon, as the station highlights, in 50 years they would be operating one second faster.
“An atomic clock on the Moon will have a different rhythm than a clock on Earth,” said Kevin Coggins, NASA’s chief communications and navigation officer, explaining that “it makes sense that when you go to another body, like the Moon or Mars , everyone has their own heart rate.”
The White House’s goal is that this new time zone will help coordinate national and private efforts to reach the Moon.
It should be noted, however, that this is not an effort that is being carried out only by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) also wants to define a time zone for the Moon that is accepted internationally. .
For the moon to have its own time zone, there will have to be an agreement between countries and the International Bureau of Weights and Measures.
All missions launched so far have time zones synchronized with those of Earth, but given that there are plans to create a space station on the Moon, it is clear that it will soon be necessary to define a more specific time zone.
The US wants this time zone to be ready in 2026, in time for its manned mission to the Moon, the first since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Read Also: Astronauts returning to the Moon will take plants to see how they grow
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