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Old December 6th 18, 11:00 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Gerald Kelleher
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Default Lat/Long system for Mars continued

Presently, images of a Lat/Long system are scarce for Mars and with good reason -

https://www.researchgate.net/profile...oximity-of.png

Thankfully there is no 24 hour cycle with prime meridian, dateline, hour divisions or any of the other timekeeping features which make Earth timekeeping a masterpiece -

https://s22380.pcdn.co/wp-content/up...map-ALPO_A.jpg


It is tempting to just say that the Equatorial circumference of Mars generates an equatorial speed of 889.3 km per Earth hour but then it would not mesh with time divisions/ distances of 15 degrees/1 hour as on Earth.

Basically Mars is a clean sheet with the hour value unknown as the integer of hours which operate with the geometry/geography of Mars go into identifying exact locations as per a workable GPS system with the equivalent of geostationary satellites and so on.

People have woken up to the endeavour and that in itself is an accomplishment so while most will, of course, lean on old familiar jargon, there is something special about creating a working system for another planet using the masterpiece we inherited from our ancestors.