White House directs NASA to create time standard for the moon

Sundials are good enough, they were in the ancient times and what was good back then should be good enough for now!!

Or better yet, leave the moon alone.

Will be needed as this time we are going back to stay!!!

The Moon's rotation and its 'year' (orbit) are nearly synchronous and since we're going to establish permanent colonies there, we're going to have to find a way to 'synch' the 'days' and a calendar up for them. Each celestial body has its own time system and they don't follow what we have on Earth.

Mankind is progressing!

"Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC)"

Seems a bit back to front to me.

Some government officials seem to have far too much time on their hands and are working really hard to justify their existence.... and their huge salaries!!

I want some of whatever they’re smoking in the White House

Uh oh, ot means that moon meetings are coming.

They should fix the problems we have on Earth with different times and timezones. Take a look at China. 1 timezone for what could easily be 5 separate TZs. The people get used to it and it becomes 2nd nature.

The natural moon clock is never going to be very useful to humans on Luna. It just isn't. 2 weeks of sun, 2 weeks of dark. Knowing when those changes happen needs to be tracked/known, since most humans on Luna will be underground to get sufficient protection from long-term radiation. There aren't any Van-Allen belts or ozone layer on the moon.

So, NASA should pick "US Central Standard Time" - no daylight savings crap - for the entire moon, using a 24 hr clock (military time). Then just add "dark" or "bright" to reflect when the sun is up or down in the local place they are on the moon. Why Dark or Bright? Because they will be abbreviated as "D" and "B". Never use "Iil1" (those are 4 different characters - el, eye, capital eye, the number 1) or "O0o" (Cap oh, zero, lowercase oh) in 1 letter abbreviations ---- or account numbers.

Setting the time is absolutely critical. There are so many things that matter based on the time. Having an easy translation back to Earth is important, until there are lots of people on Mars.

On Mars the rotation is about 24h:37m long, which really screws up things. For the most part, giving people an extra 37 min of sleep would be the best answer. For humans, just stop the clocks for 37 min in the middle of the night. We and our pets won't notice. It is close enough. Scientists and computer security does care greatly about having accurate time.

For long running experiments that need precise time measurement, either use a stopwatch or a countdown timer. Spacecraft have had something called MET "Mission Elapsed Time" since the beginning.

NASA might consider switching to metric-like time as well. Make there be 100 hrs in a day, 100 minutes in an hour, 100 seconds in a minute. Being consistent on the body in space is what matters. Or perhaps 10 hrs, 100 minutes, 100 seconds? IDK. If I were on the NASA team, I'd ask NIST and the US Navy for some ideas, since submarines have 18 hour days - 3x6 hr shifts. Submarines are unforgiving. Being on another body without air is also unforgiving.. When I worked at NASA, the FCRs had 2x12 hour shifts, but much of that is coasting.

omg, they just can use our time, UTC or whatever, because when calculated, the difference will be 1 second after approximately 45 years. lol

The differing gravitational force, and potentially other factors, on the moon and on other celestial bodies change how time unfolds relative to how it is perceived on Earth.

The lower gravity means that time moves slightly more quickly on the moon.