NASA Initiates Development of Standard Lunar Time

April 20, 2024

Since the Moon has less gravity than Earth, atomic clocks placed on its surface would run ahead by 58.7 microseconds per day compared to Earth clocks. Currently, such a difference could be critically important for communication and other systems. The new standard will be based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on Earth. A preliminary plan is expected to be prepared by 2026.