Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC).

THE WHITE House has directed NASA to create a time standard for the Moon, which international organisations and private companies can use to coordinate activities on the lunar surface. The space agency has been asked to work with other parts of the United States government to finalise by the end of 2026 the strategy to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC).

• The White House has asked NASA to establish a unified standard time for the moon and other celestial bodies, according to a new report.
• This is part of the United States’ plan to set international norms in space as a new space race has started with many more countries and even private companies.
• The chief of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) asked NASA to work with other US government bodies to come up with a plan in two years for setting “Coordinated Lunar Time,” or LTC, reported Reuters recently , citing a memo.
• The European Space Agency in 2023 had announced similar plans to give the Moon its own time zone. The idea came up during a meeting between people from various space agencies in Netherlands in late 2022, according to AP. The participants in the meeting agreed on the urgent need for a common lunar reference time.
• This question of setting time in space was something that NASA has dealt with in the past already. That was for the International Space Station. While ISS does not exactly have its own time zone, it runs on Coordinated Universal Time or UTC, which is a standard kept meticulously by atomic clocks. Using UTC is a compromise between the united States, Russia, Japan and Europe; all partners in the ISS program.