The White House is asking the US space agency NASA to develop a new one time zones for The moon – Coordinated Lunar Time (CLT).
Because of the different strength of the Moon’s gravitational field, time there runs faster than Earth – by 58.7 microseconds each day.
This may not seem like much, but it can have a significant impact when synchronizing spacecraft, the BBC reports.
The US government hopes the new weather will help maintain a coordinated national and private effort to reach the moon.
Professor Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal of Scotland, told BBC Radio 4 today that time flows differently in different places in the universe.
“The moon’s gravity is a little weaker and the clocks work differently.”
Time on Earth is currently measured by hundreds of atomic clocks located around our planet, which measure the changing energy states of atoms to record time down to the nanosecond.
“An atomic clock on the moon will tick at a different rate than a clock on Earth,” said Kevin Coggins, NASA’s senior communications and navigation officer.
“It makes sense that when you go to another body, like the Moon or Mars, they each get their own heartbeat,” he said.
But NASA isn’t the only one trying to make lunar weather a reality. The European Space Agency is also developing a new time system. This is currently done by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures for Earth Weather.
Coordinated Universal Time is currently used on the International Space Station as it remains low in orbit. Another element the parties will have to agree on is where the new time frame starts and how far it extends.
The US wants the CLT ready by 2026 in time for its manned mission to the moon.
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