The Whitehouse has sent NASA orders to develop a lunar time zone. At first glance, some might think that this is silly. There are no people on the moon, why is a time zone needed? While it is easy to coordinate time on earth, coordinating time between the earth and moon is a bit different because of the effects of gravity/mass on the passage of time. The moon has less mass than the earth, resulting in time passing at a different rate. The difference in the rate of the passage of time is tiny, but can be significant when working with high-precision clocks. A clock on the moon and earth would drift apart by about 58 microseconds per day.

NASA was asked to come up with the system for Lunar Coordinated Time by the end of 2026. The efforts will include contributions of international bodies and the 36 nations that are part of the Artemis Accords. This will add to the systems of time used in astronomy such as a solar day, mean solar day, sidereal day, and the 11 time zones on Mars.

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