He highlighted that “time passes differently” depending on positions in space, and cited as an example that time seems to pass more slowly where gravity is stronger, such as near celestial bodies.
“Consistent timing among operators in space is critical to the success of space situational awareness, navigation and communications capabilities,” said Welby.
The objective, according to the White House, is for Coordinated Lunar Time, or LTC, to be linked to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), currently the main standard used to regulate time on Earth.
The White House has directed NASA to work collaboratively with the Departments of Commerce, Defense, State and Transportation to develop a time pattern strategy that improves navigation and other operations for missions, particularly in cislunar space, the region between Earth and Earth. and the Moon.
The new standard should focus on four characteristics: traceability to UTC, sufficient accuracy to support precision navigation and science, resilience to loss of contact with Earth, and scalability to environments beyond cislunar space.
The memo provides few technical details about how to establish a lunar time standard, but the OSTP suggests it could adopt elements of the existing standard on Earth.
