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.

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[–] Chainweasel 4 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Maybe a dumb question, but why couldn't they just use UTC?

[–] GoddessOfGouda 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

My guess is because the time scale is different, not just the hour offset. “Seconds tick faster than earth” — this would imply that if using UTC, the moon would move from one offset to another, then another and so on over time.

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