From Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars, explore the world of human spaceflight with NASA each week on the official podcast of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Listen to in-depth conversations with the astronauts, scientists and engineers who make it possible.
On Episode 419, Kevin Coggins, a leader in NASA Space Communications and Navigation program, explores the benefits and challenges of precision timekeeping on the Moon and Mars. This episode was recorded March 10, 2026.
Transcript
Dane Turner
Houston We Have a Podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center. Episode 419: Telling Time on Other Worlds. I’m Dane Turner, and I’ll be your host today. On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, and astronauts, all to let you know what’s going on in the world of human spaceflight and more.
Days, hours, minutes. Time is so ubiquitous to our everyday lives that we often just think of it as numbers on a clock face. We forget that these numbers are tied to the motion of our planet. But what do we do when we aren’t on Earth? How do we tell time in a place where maybe morning, afternoon, and evening don’t necessarily align with our typical Earthly 24 hour day, or even seconds themselves may tick faster on the Moon? On this episode, we have Kevin Coggins, Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation or SCaN program, to help us understand how NASA plans to keep time on other planetary bodies, and why accurate time keeping is so important to space flight.
Let’s get started.
Dane Turner
Hi, Kevin. Thank you so much for coming on Houston We Have a Podcast today.
Kevin Coggins
Hey, thanks for having me.
Dane Turner
Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started at NASA?
Kevin Coggins
Yeah. So let’s see it’s a strange background. It’s a strange loop that got me to NASA. Joined the Marine Corps at 17. I’m an electrical engineer. Worked in the defense and aerospace industry for many years. Found myself doing position navigation and timing for the Department of War, and then, lo and behold, I found myself doing Space Communications and Navigation at NASA.
Dane Turner
So you’ve been doing the things that SCaN does …