[krisoft]

Idk. Is this actually needed in practice? Most RTC chips are off by several seconds per day. If you need accurate time you sync them to an outside source (a network time server or GPS). Does it matter if your oscillator is 56 microseconds off because of relativistic effects if it is off by multiple seconds because the chip is cheap?

You need some sort of network connections back to Earth anyway, can't you just spare a few NTP packets here and there and be done with it?

I haven't read the underlying white paper yet and maybe that will change my mind, but the CNN article hasn't convinced me yet that this is a problem worth worrying about.

[dotnet00]

I think the point is that if we're standardizing a lunar time, it should be done with as much precision as possible. Kind of like how we have very precise benchmarks for what our units of length are in terms of fundamental properties.

Personal computers don't care much about timing down to the nanosecond, but scientific pursuits often need that level of precision, standardizing timing with high precision would make it easier to perform experiments that depend on time correlated comparisons across the lunar surface.

It's still a weak case in my opinion, things can always be refined later.

[imoverclocked]

GPS is “global” ie: Earth centric. Say you want to create LPS (s/Global/Lunar/ ~ GPS) then, yes. It matters.

[lxgr]

> Is this actually needed in practice?

For scientific experiments of the type one might be running on the moon? Almost certainly for at least some of them.

[yencabulator]

What's the difference between correcting a lunar-bound oscillator for this new time standard versus correcting it for UTC?

[nitwit005]

> Is this actually needed in practice?

No.

The actual problem is a political one. Past missions have used the local time from where the mission was based. They want an agreed time for international missions.

This talk of ultra precise clocks being sent to the moon seems very unlikely to happen, as it isn't relevant to solving the political problem.

[yencabulator]

Then it's a lot of hot air where UTC would suffice.