Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) needed due to differing gravitational forces
Nasa is working to create a new standard of time for the Moon that will see clocks move faster than on Earth, according to a White House memo.
The US Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) directed the US space agency to set up a moon-centric time reference system that accounts for its differing gravitational forces.
In a memo on Tuesday, OSTP chief Arati Prabhakar noted that Earth-based clocks would appear to lose 58.7 microseconds per Earth-day as a result of these factors.
Nasa has until 2026 to set up a unified time standard, which Ms Prabhakar referred to as Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC). It will then be used by astronauts, spacecraft and satellites that require highly accurate timekeeping.
Taking the risk to sound like a complete idiot but why cant we technically.
agree on how late it is.
call it universal time.
It might feel like weird to live during different hours but i am sure people will adapt to their local sleeping/waking/eating moments. Most of us arent following our bioclock anyway.
Or is this about needing a way to quantify a unit of time scientifically when not on earth? But then earth reference points wont work either?
In all practicality, that’s probably what most people are going to do. But there will probably need to be a way of coordinating very long-distance (interplanetary-scale) science experiments and such.