NASA Confirms It’s Developing The Moon’s New Time Zone

NASA has officially announced its efforts to create a new lunar time system for the Moon. This move follows a policy memo from the White House, published in April, that directed NASA to develop the lunar time standard, known as Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC), by 2026. NASA will work with various U.S. government stakeholders, international partners, and standards organizations to establish this new time zone.

The need for a lunar-specific time zone is tied to Einstein’s theory of relativity, which states that time changes relative to speed and gravity. Since the Moon has weaker gravity compared to Earth, time moves slightly faster on its surface. This difference, although small—about 56 microseconds per day—could significantly impact calculations for precision-dependent missions.

Cheryl Gramling, NASA’s leader in timing and standards, explained the importance of accurate lunar timekeeping. She noted that for objects traveling at the speed of light, those 56 microseconds are enough to cover a distance equivalent to 168 football fields. Without compensating for relativity, observers on Earth could misjudge the position of orbiting astronauts around the Moon by the same margin.

The initiative for LTC involves collaboration with U.S. departments like Commerce, Defense, State, and Transportation. Global participation, especially from nations that are part of the Artemis Accords, will be essential to its development. These accords, established in 2020, include a coalition of 43 countries committed to responsible space exploration. Notably, China and Russia have not signed on.

NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) program will lead the LTC development. The goal is to create a scalable system that could be used for future missions to other celestial bodies, like Mars. Similar to Earth’s Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), LTC will be based on a weighted average of atomic clocks on the Moon.

This strategy heavily relies on NASA’s Artemis mission, which intends to bring humans back to the Moon. Four people will circle the Moon on Artemis 2, which is slated to launch in September 2025. Artemis 3, which intends to land astronauts close to the lunar South Pole in 2026, will come next.