Sponsors (2)
The bill aims to create an interoperable, resilient lunar time standard to enable safer, commercially viable lunar operations and clearer congressional oversight, at the cost of federal spending and potential technical and international complications.
U.S. aerospace companies, small businesses, tech workers, and international partners will gain interoperable lunar time standards tied to Earth standards, supporting commercial growth and international cooperation for Artemis and future Moon-to-Mars activities.
Scientists, navigators, and lunar mission operators will get a lunar time standard (traceable to UTC where practicable) that improves precision navigation, timing, and scientific measurements on and around the Moon.
Mission operators and researchers will benefit from a resilience requirement that enables lunar systems to operate without continuous Earth contact, improving safety and robustness during communication outages or delays.
Taxpayers may face increased federal spending to develop and implement a new lunar time standard, with uncertain near-term returns for the public.
Scientists, engineers, and system designers may be constrained by technical reliance on traceability to UTC given relativistic and architectural challenges, complicating designs and raising implementation difficulty.
International partners and diplomatic relations could be strained if the U.S. push for leadership in a lunar time standard conflicts with other countries' preferences, complicating interoperability and cooperation.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs NASA to develop a coordinated lunar time standard and implementation strategy, with interagency and stakeholder consultation and a congressional briefing within two years.
Official title: To require the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop celestial time standardization to support future operations and infrastructure on and around the Moon and other celestial bodies other than Earth, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 25, 2025 by Jennifer McClellan · Last progress March 25, 2025
Requires NASA, working with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and other federal agencies, to develop a coordinated lunar time standard and an implementation strategy. The strategy must aim for traceability to Coordinated Universal Time, adequate precision for navigation and science, resilience if contact with Earth is lost, and scalability beyond the Earth–Moon system, and NASA must brief relevant congressional committees within two years.