"Two Worlds, One Sun"

Written by bookofjoe
Published January 18, 2004

The motto on each of the MarsDials on the two Martian rovers. The MarsDial was invented by Bill Nye "The Science Guy," who suggested that the photo color calibration devices - small posts on three-inch-square aluminum blocks - do double duty as sundials.

More than 200 people working with the Spirit rover are working on Mars Time, which consists of a Martian day called a sol - precisely 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds long. The Mars men and women have had their watches converted to Mars Time by an Armenian watchmaker near the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Although he has orders from around the world, he can do only about eight watches a day. Oh, yeah, it has to be an old-fashioned analog watch, with a dial and hands and all those wheels and moving parts inside.

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"Two Worlds, One Sun"
Published: January 18, 2004
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Section: Culture
Writer: bookofjoe
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