Source-This post on Coordinated Lunar Time has been created based on the article “How and why US wants to establish a time standard for the Moon” published in “The Indian Express” on 11 April 2024.
Why in the news?
US government has asked NASA to develop a time system for the Moon to ensure that international groups and private companies working in the moon, can synchronize their activities.
About Coordinated Lunar Time
Description-It will provide a time-keeping benchmark for lunar spacecraft and satellites that require extreme precision for their missions. It will also synchronize the communication between satellites, astronauts, bases and the Earth.
Importance-A unified time standard would ensure coordinated operations, reliability of transactions and managing the logistics of lunar commerce.
How does Earth’s time standard work?
Most of the world’s clocks and time zones follow Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is a globally accepted standard for time. UTC is established by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris, France.
Measurement-
1) It is tracked by a weighted average of more than 400 atomic clocks placed in different parts of the globe. Atomic clocks measure time in terms of the resonant frequencies. Resonant frequency is the natural frequency of an object where it tends to vibrate at a higher amplitude of atoms such as cesium-133.
2) In atomic time, a second is defined as the period in which a caesium atom vibrates 9,192,631,770 times. As the vibration rates at which atoms absorb energy are highly stable and ultra-accurate, atomic clocks make for an excellent device for gauging the passage of time.
What is the need to develop a time system for the moon?
1) UTC cannot be used to determine time on the Moon. Since there is less gravity on the Moon, time ticks slightly faster as compared to time on the Earth. For ex- an Earth-based clock will appear to lose on average 58.7 microseconds per Earth day with “additional periodic variations. However, even a small difference in time can cause issues for things like spacecraft docking on the moon, timing data transfers, communication, and navigation.
2) With the rise in number of moon missions in future, it will be difficult to synchronize their mission operations standard with each other, and it may lead to collisions. Thus, it is important to have Coordinated Lunar Time.
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