A bill that has just draw out of the US House Committee on Science , Space , and Technology is aimed at tackling challenges beyond Earth " due to relativistic outcome " .

TheCelestial Time Standardization Actwill now make its way through to a floor vote , before going to the Senate , before being signed into law . The design of the bill is to apprise NASA to " develop celestial time normalization to support future operations and base on and around the Moon and other supernal bodies other than Earth , and for other purposes " .

As part of this , NASA will have to make a time zone on the Moon , which can be used for mission purposes , and be translated to Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC ) . That ’s not as simple as saying " ok it ’s now 4.00 pm on the Moon " before clock off early , thanks to general relativity .

" The enjoyment of Coordinated Universal Time has challenges when used beyond Earth at other celestial consistency , due to relativistic effects , " the flyer states , reference Mars as another heavenly eubstance where time coordination will be necessary in future .

" The United States should lead in uprise time standardization for the Moon and other celestial bodies other than Earth to support interoperability and safe and sustainable operations ; and development of such standardisation will boost United States leading in set monetary standard for ball-shaped competitiveness , and will benefit other spacefaring countries and entity . "

Time passes at dissimilar rates for dissimilar observers , depending on their relative speeds and their law of proximity to ( and persuasiveness of ) nearby gravitational fields . This does n’t normally figure into your everyday calculation . If you want to meet someone next Tuesday , you do n’t need to care about your clocks being all that unlike – unless , in the interfere days , one of you spends that time fly around at relativistic speeds , or on a planet or moon with vastly different gravity .

This is a problem for NASA and other space agencies , however , as humanity increases its activity on the lunar aerofoil once again , with a goal of eventually establishing bases on the Moon , andmoving beyond to Mars .

Currently , there is no agreedtime zoneon the Moon . Uncrewed missions loosely use the time corresponding to the trade ’s area of origin , while the crew Apollo missions used Ground Elapsed Time ( GET ) , counting from the moment of launch . As the Moon becomes more full ( of robot , and then , fingers crossed , humans ) this could pose some trouble that the US hopes to overcome by establishing a Coordinated Lunar Time .

Attempting to judge the difference in tick between the Moon and the Earth , late work has discover that time on the lunar control surface ticks by at0.0000575 secondsfaster than on the surface of the Earth per day , though other approximation have come up with slimly unlike figure . For ease of figuring , it would take around 100,000 days ( or about 274 years ) for someone on the Moon to age 5.75 second more than somebody on Earth . That might not sound like a lot , but it could be a nightmare for space missions .

“ For something traveling at the speed of light , 56 microsecond is enough time to travel the distance of approximately 168 football fields , ” Cheryl Gramling , lead on lunar position , navigation , timing , and standards at NASA Headquarters in Washington , explain in astatementin September 2024 . “ If someone is orbiting the Moon , an beholder on Earth who is n’t compensating for the upshot of relativity over a day would recall that the orbiting astronaut is about 168 football game fields away from where the astronaut really is . ”

Which , if you ’re taste to co - coordinate a ski lift home , would be middling less than ideal .

While the focus of NASA has been on create a coordinate lunar time geographical zone , the bill pushes for NASA to consider " scalability to blank environments beyond the Earth - Moon organization " as it develops a time organization that can operate with " truth sufficient to corroborate precision navigation and science " and with " resiliency to loss of contact with Earth " .

Assuming the bill goes through , the Moon will presently get its own clock time zona .