Live data from Hacker News

OpenBSD adds support for Coordinated Mars Time

marc.info

51–60 of 66 posts

Re: OpenBSD adds support for Coordinated Mars Time

#51
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter till we'll be actually able to settle down on Mars permanently, I guess and differentiating from Mars local time and its time zones will be an issue (and all parties involved in colonization will agree that Airy-0 crater will remain the 0° longitude equivalent as proposed by IAU). Beside, the perspective matters - for people on Earth it can be still UTC, for those on Mars it can be whatever term the…

> It doesn't matter till we'll be actually able to settle down on Mars permanently Why? There's plenty of computers in Mars right now and they use martian time already [0]. It's not as if OpenBSD have invented anything new, they just adapted the OS to existing practices. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timekeeping_on_Mars

Yes, computers that are aboard rovers and landers which are being used for scientific purposes. Nobody needs timekeeping on Mars beside folks at mission centers or enthusiasts - even I don't know how long Perseverance is on Mars in Sols and what's its current Airy Mean Time (I'm aware its there and doing good atm).

Now, if we'd be there already for decades or even centuries with permanent settlement then perhaps we'd have some date and time formats that would be similar to what we're having on Earth (or maybe they'd use the exotic decimal time) and I wouldn't be even writing the parent comment in first place.

Re: OpenBSD adds support for Coordinated Mars Time

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time is local to a region though - there isn't any "Solar System Coordinated Time".

I guess pulsars may be our best bet for a universally coordinated time? We can detect the passage of time in a gravity well and create a well-centric system if need be!

Well, no, pulsars periods drift due to change of alignment and emission process over time. Thought special and general relativity will drive any "global/solar system/galaxy"-wide precise time useless on long term anyway. The best is to keep track of long enough common measures ("day", "month") with decimal/fractions being connected to actual local times.

Re: OpenBSD adds support for Coordinated Mars Time

#53
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time is local to a region though - there isn't any "Solar System Coordinated Time".

Just hold still and avoid gravity wells. It’ll work out.

What is hold still? Relatively to what? Everything moves relatively to each other with a planet, solar system, galaxy, galaxy cluster, supercluster, filament, Universe...

Re: OpenBSD adds support for Coordinated Mars Time

#54
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn't matter till we'll be actually able to settle down on Mars permanently Why? There's plenty of computers in Mars right now and they use martian time already [0]. It's not as if OpenBSD have invented anything new, they just adapted the OS to existing practices. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timekeeping_on_Mars

Yes, computers that are aboard rovers and landers which are being used for scientific purposes. Nobody needs timekeeping on Mars beside folks at mission centers or enthusiasts - even I don't know how long Perseverance is on Mars in Sols and what's its current Airy Mean Time (I'm aware its there and doing good atm). Now, if we'd be there already for decades or even centuries with permanent settlement then perhaps we'd…

> Nobody needs timekeeping on Mars beside folks at mission centers

Well, these people can use OpenBSD now ;)

Re: OpenBSD adds support for Coordinated Mars Time

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time is local to a region though - there isn't any "Solar System Coordinated Time".

I guess pulsars may be our best bet for a universally coordinated time? We can detect the passage of time in a gravity well and create a well-centric system if need be!

Are you saying that a given pulsar acts as a giant sky clock? And that because it is far away — for some large value of far — it means that any clock inconsistencies across the solar system can be compensated for?

Re: OpenBSD adds support for Coordinated Mars Time

#57
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to land on Venus' surface; airships in the atmosphere are the closest thing to Earth in the Solar System. The problem is that there is nothing useful on Mars and its location sucks. Any other planetary body makes more economic sense.

I think one of the most compelling aspects about Mars is the thin atmosphere which enables a high degree of visual clarity, which is very appealing to humans. The atmosphere of Venus is very murky.

Mars is not the Mojave Desert; it's far away from the sun and always dark and cold. I'd think anybody going to Mars for the aesthetics would be disappointed.

Re: OpenBSD adds support for Coordinated Mars Time

#58
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter till we'll be actually able to settle down on Mars permanently, I guess and differentiating from Mars local time and its time zones will be an issue (and all parties involved in colonization will agree that Airy-0 crater will remain the 0° longitude equivalent as proposed by IAU). Beside, the perspective matters - for people on Earth it can be still UTC, for those on Mars it can be whatever term the…

> It doesn't matter till we'll be actually able to settle down on Mars permanently Mars is the least useful planetary body in the Solar System for human colonization, so that time may well be "never".

You can live on Pluto instead if you insist.

Re: OpenBSD adds support for Coordinated Mars Time

#59
post #7

Should we go ahead and make a SSCT (solar system coordinated time) as well? That way I don't have to constantly be converting lunar timestamps, mars timestamps, etc. back to UTC (or the coordinated time of whichever celestial body I'm currently on) in order to paint a timeline of when events happened between my different devices spread out across the solar system.

Wouldn't that need accounting for relativity? Distance to the gravity well (sun) affects the physical passage of time for you. Perhaps that's doable, but you can't count a sequence of numbers off and call it a day.

Re: OpenBSD adds support for Coordinated Mars Time

#60
post #44

(where/how) can I see the actual patch set, not only summary of modified files? I have not worked with cvs, so it's non trivial to figure out.

This is an April Fools joke, so there’s nothing to see. But if you want a browsable interface to OpenBSD’s repos (no CVS knowledge required), you can use either the project’s CVSweb [1] or the GitHub mirrors [2]. [1]: http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ [2]: https://github.com/openbsd

It's amazing and embarrassing how far I had to scroll through the comments to realise this was an April Fools. Tbf it's 4:43 on the 2nd of April where I am now, but still
Post reply on HN