The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has released a memorandum directing NASA to establish a unified time standard for the moon and other celestial bodies to advance the Biden administration’s National Cislunar Science and Technology Strategy.
Under the memorandum, NASA will work with departments of Commerce, Defense, State and Transportation to create a plan by December 2026 for the implementation of the Coordinated Lunar Time, the White House said Tuesday.
“A consistent definition of time among operators in space is critical to successful space situational awareness capabilities, navigation, and communications, all of which are foundational to enable interoperability across the U.S. government and with international partners,” said Steve Welby, deputy director for national security at OSTP.
According to the memorandum, a unified standard of time will be foundational to the U.S. government’s efforts to establish a sustainable Cislunar ecosystem with scalable position, navigation and timing infrastructure.
“Knowledge of time in distant operating regimes is fundamental to the scientific discovery, economic development, and international collaboration that form the basis of U.S. leadership in space,” the memo reads.
Time standardization will also theoretically enable the U.S. to boost interoperability with international partners, promote safe and sustainable operations and simplify space situational awareness for flight operations and safety.
