5 ms·
> For now, a moon mission runs on the time of the country that is operating the spacecraft. Even more confusing since most spacefaring nations span across mult
by Galacta7 4y ago
> For now, a moon mission runs on the time of the country that is operating the spacecraft.
Even more confusing since most spacefaring nations span across multiple time zones. Getting a lunar time zone that everyone can theoretically follow seems like a practical idea. It'll be interesting to see how this works on Mars, which would need to have its own planetary time zones (if there aren't already).
- bcrosby95 4y agoTimezones are a practical construct for humans. I'm not sure Mars needs its own planetary time zones until humans are living on it - I don't know what purpose it would otherwise serve.
- goalieca 4y agoRelativistic drift would be a thing over long distances and times.
- WithinReason 4y agoCome on, even Earth doesn't need timezones.
- WayToDoor 4y agoSo You Want Continuous Time Zones [0] ? Or maybe you want to abolish them entirely [1] ? [0] https://qntm.org/continuous https://qntm.org/continuous [1] https://qntm.org/abolish https://qntm.org/abolish
- twic 4y agoThe solution is obviously Swatch Internet Time.
- WithinReason 4y agoAbolish them entirely. Your second link is silly and is not a serious counterargument.
- Dylan16807 4y agoIt's just as valid as a non-silly post. If you get rid of time zones, people will replace them with an ad hoc system that does most of the same things but worse. The current implementation could be improved some, but time zones in general are close to the least worst option.
- WithinReason 4y agoI think having a unified time everywhere is a really obvious advantage. Time being measured differently based on geographic location is completely silly. You would still need to look up how a different location is scheduled but you also need to do that with timezones so there's no disadvantage, only an advantage.
- Dylan16807 4y agoWe do have a unified time everywhere, UTC. Putting time zones on top means people have to look up less.
- WithinReason 4y agoUTC is effectively a timezone. Putting tomezones on top means people have to look up more.
- Dylan16807 4y agoPlease explain how you would do unified time without UTC?
- WithinReason 4y ago
- downvotetruth 4y agoThose links have many falsehoods like claiming that UTC is a time zone. UTC±00:00 or Z is, but not UTC; "Continuous Time Zones" is self-contradictory.
- layman51 4y agoThe Earth doesn’t need them? But wasn’t the concept of a time zone invented because someone was always late to the train station and it was leaving him behind? We would at least need one giant time zone with an international date line.
- njarboe 4y agoIt was needed for running railroads but the issue was a bit more important than being late for your train and missing it. When you are running trains in opposite directions on the same track it is pretty important to have your clocks well synced so you don't have head-on collisions.
- downvotetruth 4y agoHaving your clocks well synced is not enough to stop collisions.
- monocasa 4y agoMars rover engineers already work on Mars local time interestingly enough. So right now there's functionally as many Mars time zones as there are current missions on the planet. https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-scientists-live-work-mars-time https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-scientists-live-work-mars...
- mr_toad 4y agoNot just humans - if you have multiple agencies with multiple assets that need to interact then you need to agree on a common time.