Thoughts on Planet day units:
A Planet day is 17.53 earth hours. dy(p) = 17.53 hr(e) * 3600 s/hr(e) = 63,108 s. Not a very nice round number.
Let's round to 63.1 ks. If you go kinda metric and divide the day into 20 parts, a Planet hour: hr(p) = 3155 s.
If you kept Planet hour close to hr(e) and divided dy(p) into 18 hr(p'), then 63,108 / 18 = hr(p') = 3506 s.
So earth minutes don't fit very well. I suppose with the 18 hr(p')/ dy(p), you could say there are 35 hectosecs per Planet hour - 35 hs/ hr(p'), but that leaves an extra 1 hs/ dy(p) and change.
Would, after a very few generations, the sleep/wake rhythms of the human body adapt to the local circumstances?
The local year (one circuit of the primary star) could then be 532 local days of 18 hours (of 60 minutes of 60 seconds, seconds being a measure that doesn't change), and "leap days" could be calculated and added or subtracted as necessary to make some kind of standard cycle, similar to how the 19-year cycle of the Hebrew calendar is done.
As for the appearance of Hercules, its cycle is already known and could be noted in almanacs and ephemirides so there would be no surprise when the time came for the "native wildlife" to become restless.
A second is a fundamental unit, so I don't see that changing.Thoughts on Planet day units:
A Planet day is 17.53 earth hours. dy(p) = 17.53 hr(e) * 3600 s/hr(e) = 63,108 s. Not a very nice round number.
Let's round to 63.1 ks. If you go kinda metric and divide the day into 20 parts, a Planet hour: hr(p) = 3155 s.
If you kept Planet hour close to hr(e) and divided dy(p) into 18 hr(p'), then 63,108 / 18 = hr(p') = 3506 s.
So earth minutes don't fit very well. I suppose with the 18 hr(p')/ dy(p), you could say there are 35 hectosecs per Planet hour - 35 hs/ hr(p'), but that leaves an extra 1 hs/ dy(p) and change.
True, unless they have Planet seconds be just a tiny bit longer than Earth seconds...
But that's more flexible in any case, since the day is the only period there with physical significance.
I think I caught on: Set the ephemerical timing on the Hercules/Chiron alignment with A (and the perihelion event), then assign some manageable number of days to a secular year and month system?
(On what are the Mission Years based? Earth years?)
I have to wonder - what would be the point?
A calendar is useful mostly for consensus timekeeping and agricultural planning. The colonists brought a consensus calendar with them from Earth, and in an industrialized society on a planet without seasons where everyone lives indoors, one that conforms to local conditions has little to offer highly-mechanized and not-close-to-nature farming industry.
Of course we've left out a basic Earth function so far - religion.
There's a religion or two behind every single calendar system I can think of prior to the French Revolution...
And I'm arguing that there isn't really any point in defining a "year" by the circuit of the primary star, because unlike Earth there are no seasons to speak of anyway. The primary effect of that circuit is in how it affects the relative positions of the primary star and Hercules, but that actually comes out to a cycle slightly longer than Chiron's orbital period.
Naturally.
-Betcha Cha has his own calendar, though.
And I'm arguing that there isn't really any point in defining a "year" by the circuit of the primary star, because unlike Earth there are no seasons to speak of anyway. The primary effect of that circuit is in how it affects the relative positions of the primary star and Hercules, but that actually comes out to a cycle slightly longer than Chiron's orbital period.
Keep in mind that Hercules' distance to Alpha Centauri A changes quite a bit during their 80 year orbit around each other. In essence, a Chiron year based on Hercules' appearance in the sky would be longer during aphelion, and shortest during perihelion of the star.
Lithe Days?