Time moves slightly faster on the moon as it has a weaker gravitational pull than the Earth|Ashutoshrc|CC BY-SA 3.0

The White House has asked NASA to establish a time standard for the moon amid a growing lunar race. The US aims to set international norms in space. The unified time standard will be called “Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC).”

A memo was sent Tuesday by the White House’s science arm that said the Biden administration wants to “establish time standards at and around celestial bodies other than Earth,” asking the space agency to develop celestial time standardization by December 2026.

Since the moon has a weaker gravitational pull than the Earth, time moves slightly faster there. The LTC would act as a time-keeping benchmark for satellites and lunar spacecraft and help in precise calculations during missions.