Timekeeping on Mars
Few years back I noticed that new year will start on Mars. I started to think about timekeeping on Mars. How long its year is, how long is a sol (Mars day)? How would one have the months, since Mars doesn’t have a proper moon for such division?
Quickly, I compiled a calendar, since the new year was coming. It was for the Mars year 36. (First Mars year started in 1955 in our calendar.) I wasn’t too happy with the result, the time ran out. So I decided to try again next year, and compiled a calendar for Mars year 37. (Link is directly to the pdf-version of the calendar.)
When that year finished, I made a third one for Mars year 38, which starts on 12.11.2024 Earth time. The calendar shows 18 calendar spreads, divided into seasons and ”quarants”. (There is no official agreement about how to divide Mars’s sols into segments, so I just used groups of 40 sols in four seasons. The last 40 sol segment in each season falls short.)
To make the calendar more interesting, I added pictures from NASA etc. from Martian landscapes and areas with info. There’s also a chart of the inner solar system in each spread showing the positions of earthlike planets around the Sun in the beginning of that ”quarant”.
Still, the bread and butter of the calendar are the presented views of Martian skies in each spread. The calendar shows the most interesting objects in the sky, as if the user would be an amateur astronomer living on Mars. The pictures I drew with the help of Stellarium planetarium programme. The info is hand-picked from the data.
Both calendars, years 37 and 38, turned out nicely, but the amount of work was insane. (I tried not to use too much of the same material in both.) The best part was that planning and working with this really took me into Mars, thinking how it would be like over there.
The calendar for Mars year 38 is in Finnish and in English, both having a version without bleed for web viewing as well as 3mm bleed for professional printing (output is Coated FOGRA39). I recommend printing the calendar on the wall, so it can be followed throughout the Martian year.
Lataa suomenkielinen Mars 38 -kalenteri tästä / Lataa suomenkielinen Mars 38 -kalenteri 3mm bleedillä painotaloa varten tästä
Download the English version of Mars 38 calendar from here / Download the English version of Mars 38 calendar with 3mm bleed for printing houses from here
This Mars 38 calendar is CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 so feel free to send it to or print it out and give it to anyone you think would be interested in dwelling into Martian life. It might work well also in schools or science clubs to inspire learning more about Mars.