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The U.S. government has directedNASAto give the moon its own fourth dimension geographical zone .

The space way has until the end of 2026 to establish " Coordinated Lunar Time ( LTC),“according to amemo sent to NASAby the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy ( OSTP ) .

An image of half of the moon.

An image of half of the moon.

Lunar time will run differently from time zones on Earth . Because there ’s less sobriety on the Sun Myung Moon , time there moves faster than on our planet — operate ahead by 58.7 microseconds every day . This apparently humble difference is enough to throw off the precise maneuvers of lunar spacecraft and satellite .

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" The same clock that we have on Earth would move at a unlike rate on the moon,“Kevin Coggins , NASA ’s space communications and navigation programme director , told Reuters .

an illustration of a base on the moon

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The Chang�e 5 return capsule at its landing site in Inner Mongolia, China, on Dec. 17, 2020.

These mission will be lively steps towards NASA ’s greatest ambition for the Artemis program : submit humans toMars .

With loads of land and company imply in new mission to the moonlight , a exchangeable way of synchronizing clocks is vital .

" Think of the nuclear filaria at the U.S. Naval Observatory ( in Washington ) . They ’re the split second of the land , contemporise everything , " Coggins tell Reuters . " You ’re going to require a pulsation on the moon . "

an image taken by the PUNCH satellites showing the moon with the sun blocked out by occulters

Sunset on the moon taken by Blue Ghost moon lander

A photograph of a sunrise on the moon captured by Firefly Aerospace�s Blue Ghost lander.

An illustration of an asteroid passing by Earth

The Long March-7A carrier rocket carrying China Sat 3B satellite blasts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on May 20, 2025 in Wenchang, Hainan Province of China.

A white streak of light in the night sky with purple auroras visible in the background

The Phoenix Mars lander inside the clean room the bacteria were found in

China�s Tiangong space station with Earth in the background

An artist�s illustration of a satellite crashing back to Earth.

An illustration of a satellite crashing into the ocean after an uncontrolled reentry through Earth�s atmosphere

An image comparing the relative sizes of our solar system�s known dwarf planets, including the newly discovered 2017 OF201

an illustration showing a large disk of material around a star

a person holds a GLP-1 injector

A man with light skin and dark hair and beard leans back in a wooden boat, rowing with oars into the sea

an MRI scan of a brain

A photograph of two of Colossal�s genetically engineered wolves as pups.

selfie taken by a mars rover, showing bits of its hardware in the foreground and rover tracks extending across a barren reddish-sand landscape in the background