Family Of Five Shifts To Living On Mars Time
A family of five has decided to change their entire daily schedules and have adjusted to Mars time.
Newser reports that, since the landing of NASA’s most recent Mars rover, Flight Director David Oh and his family have decided to sync their internal clocks with Mars.
Scientists and engineers adjust their schedule to Mars time for the first three months of every Mars mission, but it is almost unheard of for a whole family to make such a drastic change. This change in time amounts to a time zone change a day.
Days on Mars last a little longer than days on Earth. The Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours. Our neighbor Mars spins at a slower pace. Days there, known as sols, last 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than on Earth. The difference may not seem like much each day, but it adds up day after day.
Intrigued about switching to extraterrestrial time, Oh’s wife, Bryn, jumped at the chance to have their kids — 13-year-old Braden, 10-year-old Ashlyn, and 8-year-old Devyn — join them in the Martian time zone switch.
“We all feel a little sleepy, a little jet-lagged all day long, but everyone is doing great,” Bryn Oh said, two weeks into the experiment.
Usually being up at night has it’s benefits for Braden, Ashlyn, and Devyn. They saw their first shooting star, went on night hikes in the hills around the neighborhood, and had a late dinner in Hollywood and were able to watch street performers on the Walk of Fame with other tourists. They were also able to see a midnight screening of a zombie film before going bowling.
To stay in lockstep, almost 800 people on the $2.5 billion project have switched their daily schedules to the Mars time. In the simplest sense, each day slides forward 40 minutes. That results in weird work, sleep, and eating schedules. Many say it feels like perpetual jet lag.
The Oh children are gradually getting used to this change in time; however, they will have to revert back to Earth time later this month in order to get ready for school.
