The ISS crew celebrated Thanksgiving today.
Apparently the ISS uses Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is equivalent to Greenwich Mean Time.
What timezone would people use for interstellar travel?
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1$\begingroup$ just fixed my typo/wrong word. $\endgroup$– CodingMattersNov 27, 2020 at 3:23
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$\begingroup$ looks good, thanks! $\endgroup$– uhohNov 27, 2020 at 3:39
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6$\begingroup$ Interstellar travel is speculative enough that it's difficult to give an answer to this. $\endgroup$– ikraseNov 27, 2020 at 5:17
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2 Answers
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I suspect any interstellar travel will have relativistic effects (it's a factor of even interplanetary travel), the only reasonable timezones are EMET and OMET -- Experienced and Observed Mission Elapsed Times which would have the departure date as its epoch. When these timezones are converted (by adding the epoch) EMET would be somewhat earlier than Zulu time, and OMET would be significantly later.
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$\begingroup$ Tell us more! I've just asked How are Experienced and Observed Mission Elapsed Times defined? (EMET & OMET) $\endgroup$– uhohNov 27, 2020 at 23:07
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I think it will be either UTC(If international) Or the country's command center time zone, as the Space Shuttle, Mercury, Apollo, and other USA missions had Houston Time, and Russian missions, like Vostok, Luna and other Russian missions used Mission Control time zone. So here are the answers I think:
- International will have UTC
- 1 country missions will have Mission Control time.
Sources: In the book "Spaceman" By Massimo he described how he used houston time aboard the space shuttle, as his EVA was in the morning.
Other spacecraft are from book The NASA archives book(USA), other books by astronauts(Russian), and Movie "Living In Space" about the iss by astronauts(ISS).
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1$\begingroup$ Can you provide a reference showing that shuttle missions used Houston time onboard? $\endgroup$ Nov 29, 2020 at 1:56
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$\begingroup$ In the book "Spaceman" By Massimo he described how he used houston time aboard the space shuttle, as his EVA was in the morning. $\endgroup$– LeoNov 29, 2020 at 20:02
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1$\begingroup$ @OrganicMarble - I suspect Leo is using "used" in the context of when the crew were scheduled to sleep, eat, work, etc., as opposed to "used" in the context of the Earth-based time system used to coordinate these activities, timetag data and commands, etc. When launch time and landing time allowed it, non-ISS shuttle flights tended to have the crew's daily cycle be in sync with time in Houston rather than time in Greenwich. $\endgroup$ Nov 30, 2020 at 12:03
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$\begingroup$ Other spacecraft are from book The NASA archives book(USA), other books by astronauts(Russian), and Movie "Living In Space" about the iss by astronauts(ISS). These are all credible sources. I dont get why is this voted down. $\endgroup$– LeoNov 30, 2020 at 23:09
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$\begingroup$ @Leo Sources need to be included in the text of the answer itself, not in comments. Comments on Stack Exchange are temporary. $\endgroup$– called2voyage ♦Dec 1, 2020 at 16:30