On 2008-08-01, Androcles wrote:

"Andrew Smallshaw" wrote in message
...
| On 2008-07-31, Androcles wrote:
|
| BTW, what's the local time at the South Pole?
|
| The Amundsen-Scott base keeps New Zealand time.

Uh huh... and what about Faraday and Mid-Point Charlie and McMurdo and ...

But they're not at the South Pole.

Regardless of where your location, though, 'now' is the same time
anywhere even on other bodies and even when relevatistical effects
are factored into the equation. The issue is basically one of
measurement units and where to place the zero point.

In the specific case of Mars it is easy enough to imagine colonies
adopting local time given that the day is probably near enough to
Earth's for 'body-clock' adjustment. In that instance you would
expect the time used to be the local time of the first station,
and then possibly that would become an de facto prime meridian that
later stations offset their time from.

On other bodies it may be more difficult - if a day is less than
18 hours or longer than 30 it may well prove too big an upset for
people's natural cycle to adapt to. There politics will invariably
play a role - you can see this already with Mir which ran Moscow
time and the ISS which runs UTC.

Regardless, it isn't a trivial issue, although proposing solutions
now does seem a little premature. If I was in the neighbourhood
I may have been tempted to go along myself.

--
Andrew Smallshaw