Adjusting To a Martian Day More Difficult Than Expected

schwit1 writes: Research and actual experience have found that adjusting to the slightly longer Martian day is not as easy as you would think. "If you're on Mars, or at least work by a Mars clock, you have to figure out how to put up with the exhausting challenge of those extra 40 minutes. To be exact, the Martian day is 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds long, a length of day that doesn't coincide with the human body's natural rhythms. Scientists, Mars rover drivers, and everyone else in the space community call the Martian day a "sol" to differentiate it from an Earth day. While it doesn't seem like a big difference, that extra time adds up pretty quickly. It's like heading west by two time zones every three days. Call it 'rocket lag.'"

Comments

You get used to it.

[Penguinisto]

Seriously - people aren't as fragile as TFA surmises. In the spelunking world, cavers have discovered that after a few weeks without a day/night reference, their circadian cycles stretched out to a 24/24 cycle. In the case of a newly-minted Martian, it won't go that extreme, which means that at least within the timeframe of an exploratory journey, it would be no big deal, and they can adjust between the two on the way there and back (there's plenty of time on the journey to do that.)

Long term is a bit more difficult to predict, but only in how it affects the body overall. It would certainly adjust and stay adjusted, but I can guess (with no evidence either way) that the effect would be no different than Daylight Savings Time cycles would have on the typical adult here on Earth.

Re:You get used to it.

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree about people not being as fragile.
When you deploy on a submarine you go months at a time on an 18 hour day set to GMT. To make it worse there is no light or sun to reference day or night and certainly no reference of weekday or weekend. The only reference you have of what time it is was the type of food being served. Breakfast was always at 6 AM and was traditional breakfast food, lunch at noon was lunch food and so on. The funny thing is with the 18 hour personnel schedule, one day breakfast was your first meal, the next day it was your "lunch" and the third day it was your "dinner".

So ignore it

[Chess_the_cat]

Just like on Star Trek. When you're in deep space you just set a 24 hour clock and go with it. Why do you have to observe the Martian day at all?