NASA Moves Forward with Lunar Time Zone

By Amber Ankerholz

The Coordinated Lunar Time zone scheme could be scalable to other celestial locations.

NASA plans to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC), which will “enable a future lunar ecosystem that could be scalable to other locations in our solar system.”

The agency will coordinate with government stakeholders, partners, and international standards organizations to “establish a time standard at the Moon to ensure the critical time difference does not affect the safety of future explorers. The approach to time systems will also be scalable for Mars and other celestial bodies throughout our solar system, enabling long-duration exploration,” the announcement says.

“As the commercial space industry grows and more nations are active at the Moon, there is a greater need for time standardization. A shared definition of time is an important part of safe, resilient, and sustainable operations,” said Dr. Ben Ashman, navigation lead for lunar relay development, part of NASA’s SCaN program.

This development follows a similar announcement last year by the European Space Agency.

Learn more at NASA.