martian solar day confusion

From: Steve Allen <sla_at_ucolick.org>
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 21:53:36 -0800

Anyone who has visted the NASA/JPL website at
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
with a Flash-equipped browser has seen that the Mars Exploration Rover
teams are keeping Martian mean solar time. This is obviously a
requirement for a mission that relies on the sun for power, heating of
its motorized parts, and light for its imaging apparatus. From this
story
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2004/February/14/local/stories/01local.htm
the rover teams are reportedly also experiencing confusion between
terrestrial and Martian solar time.

Even if civilization does spread throughout the solar system,
discontinuing leap seconds is not going to alleviate these sorts of
problems.

--
Steve Allen          UCO/Lick Observatory       Santa Cruz, CA 95064
sla_at_ucolick.org      Voice: +1 831 459 3046     http://www.ucolick.org/~sla
PGP: 1024/E46978C5   F6 78 D1 10 62 94 8F 2E    49 89 0E FE 26 B4 14 93
Received on Sat Feb 14 2004 - 21:54:00 PST

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