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NASA Scientists Get Custom 24h39m-per-day Watches

Posted by timothy on from the private-sale-or-tax-money-I-wonder dept.

blair1q writes "In order to more easily keep solar time on Mars, (or maybe just as a lark) JPL has ordered specially-modified mechanical watches for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. One wonders why these literal rocket scientists didn't just get a software programmable Linux or PalmOS based wrist-computer and hack together a Mars-time display application into it?"

3 of 553 comments (clear)

  1. No, one does not by Sivar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One wonders why these literal rocket scientists didn't just get a software programmable Linux or PalmOS based wrist-computer and hack together a Mars-time display application into it?"

    It is always such a relief to know that Slashdot readers know more about Astronauts should do and use than NASA engineers.
    Maybe that was a bit harsh, but have you ever seen a sophisticated piece of consume electronics, such as a Palm Pilot or laptop, taken along with astronauts on their missions?
    Electronics in space have to be able to handle conditions that your favorite PDA engineers did not exactly have in mind--even on an astronauts wrist. Notice that the watch is not even digital, and that if you think about it, it is probably not because the Engineers didn't read The Hitchhiker's Guide.

    --
    Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
  2. Why you ask? by ByronEllis · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'll tell you why they got mechanical watches and didn't hack up a Linux watch:

    1. Generally speaking digital watches are fugly. There's no Movado Digital Watch for a reason.

    2. Commitment. This watch will ALWAYS run ~24h39m. You can give it to your grandkids. Your crap-ass programmable digital watch won't make it that far. Also, it can be made back into a 24h watch. There are no digital watch family heirlooms.

    3. A mechanical watch is a thing of craftsmanship and beauty. A watch running Windows or Linux is cute for maybe 10 minutes then its a watch that does so many other things that they forgot the "tells time" part.

  3. Other ideas for Martian timekeeping... by SRCShelton · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've always thought the system proposed by (Kim Stanley Robinson) in the Mars Trilogy books was kinda neat:

    All clocks stop at midnight, wait 40 minutes, then tick over to 00:01

    (Yes, there are practicality and "yes, but *WHAT'S the TIME*??!?" issues, but I still reckon it'd be cool)