Produced by: Manoj Kumar
What time is it on the Moon? NASA’s Artemis program confronts this question as lunar missions grow.
Lunar clocks tick 56 microseconds faster per day than Earth’s—relativity’s quirks create new challenges.
Even a 56-microsecond discrepancy could cause navigation errors up to 17 km daily, imperiling missions.
Physicists Bijunath Patla and Neil Ashby confirm relativity’s role in Moon-Earth time variances.
Earth and Moon’s free fall around the Sun complicates accurate synchronization of lunar and Earth clocks.
NASA’s Cheryl Gramling emphasizes precision for 10-meter-scale navigation in Artemis lunar ecosystems.
Calculating time at Lagrange points, key for relays, highlights further complications in lunar timekeeping.
Astronomers like Sergei Kopeikin contribute to solving microsecond-level variances for international standards.
NASA leads the charge to establish lunar timekeeping, preparing for decades of Moon-based exploration.