The White House on Tuesday ordered NASA to establish a single time standard for the moon and other celestial bodies, as the United States seeks to set international norms in space amid a growing moon race between nations and private companies, Reuters reported.

The head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), according to a memo seen by Reuters, directed the space agency to work with other US government departments to develop a plan by the end of 2026 to create what he called the Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC ).

Different gravitational forces and potentially other factors on the Moon and other celestial bodies alter the flow of time relative to how it is perceived on Earth. Among other things, LTC will be the reference point for measuring time for spacecraft and lunar satellites that require extreme precision for their missions.

“The same clocks that we have on Earth will move at a different speed on the moon,” Kevin Coggins, head of NASA’s space communications and navigation division, said in an interview.

A memo by OSTP chief Arathi Prabhakar said that for a person on the moon, the clock on Earth would lose an average of 58.7 microseconds per Earth day and would have other periodic fluctuations that would further offset lunar time than Earth time.

“Think of the atomic clock at the US Naval Observatory (in Washington). They are the heartbeat of the nation that synchronizes everything. You’re going to want a heartbeat on the moon,” Coggins said.

As part of its Artemis program, NASA plans to send astronaut missions to the moon in the coming years and establish a scientific lunar base that could help prepare future missions to Mars. Dozens of companies, spacecraft and countries are involved in this.

An OSTP official said that without a single lunar time standard, it would be difficult to ensure the security of data transmission between spacecraft and the synchronization of communications between Earth, the moon’s satellites, Basel and astronauts.

Time discrepancies can also lead to errors in mapping and positioning on the moon or in orbit, the official said.