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Mahesh

13/05/24 13:25 PM IST

NASA creating a standard time for the moon

In News
  • NASA’s four-member Artemis crew is scheduled fly around the moon in preparation for the space agency’s mission to land on the moon again.
Coordinated Lunar Time
  • In 2023, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched a project called ‘Moonlight’ to design satellites for astronauts and robotic explorers, which will be used to support NASA’s moon mission ‘Artemis.’
  • While working on the project, questions arose on setting a single time zone for the moon and how to go about it.
  • On Earth, we use a 24-hour day based on the planet’s rotation. However, the moon rotates much more slowly – every 29.5 Earth days.”
  • Due to its slow rotation, it would be practical to have less than Earth’s 24 time zones — ideally, a single time zone for the moon would be natural,
  • The idea for the UTC was formulated in the 1960s. Atomic clocks — devices that measure time based on the vibration of atoms — are known for their extreme accuracy in measuring time.
  • Meanwhile, solar time, calculating by measuring the rotation of Earth on its axis relative to the Sun, is variable in nature. A weighted average of hundreds of atomic clocks produces the International Atomic Time (TAI).
  • The UTC was designed as a way to accommodate the difference between solar time and atomic time, and is kept within 0.9 seconds of solar time to follow Earth’s rotation variations and within an exact number of seconds of the TAI.
  • Currently, moon missions follow the time of the country which operates the spacecraft, while the International Space station (ISS) runs on the UTC. However, a standardised time for space and the moon is not followed.
Features of Standard Time
  • Traceability to UTC: Lunar Time is analogous to Terrestrial Time on Earth (TAI+ 32.184 seconds). Similar to Terrestrial Time, Lunar Time may be set through an ensemble of clocks on the moon. This time standard, i.e., LTC may directly employ or distribute the UTC offsets required to maintain both local time and UTC time within tolerance limits.
  • Scalability beyond the Earth-Moon system: Conversion of LTC to UTC for operations involving interactions with Earth will be possible by using the above approach to set the LTC. This approach is also extensible to space environments beyond the Earth-Moon system (for example, for Mars).
  • Accuracy for precision navigation and science: The LTC will give users in cislunar space a reference time standard near the gravitational environment in which they operate. Space assets can synchronise with each other with precision for navigation.
  • Resilience to loss of contact with Earth: The reference time – LTC – must survive independently when contact to Earth is lost.
Source- The Hindu

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