Star Dates
Considering these speeds of planetary motion through the cosmos and the rotational velocities of the planets and moons compared to each other, the problem for future off world navigation and exploration would be, what time is it? The Earth for example rotates on its axis once every 23.9 hours while Mars rotates once every 24.6 hours.
Star charts, asteroid trajectories, planetary and moon locations, planetary rotation and flight speed all make navigation very complex and for this reason navigational charting and interplanetary communications all need a common time base to be of any use.
If you are trying to coordinate a meeting between Earth and a Mars colony official for example, whose time period would you use. The longer we are on Mars the further apart our calendar dates and time would become.
A UTC based on Earth time would be of little use once we set up colonies on other planets or the moon. A UTC might work for interplanetary flight provided the space craft always referred back to the earth based 24 hour clock while in transit but it would not sync once the craft landed. This is basically what happens as we travel through the various time zones on earth.
In the Star Trek series there were many references to star dates as a means of time keeping or calendar date progression. The series dates were initially “made up” with no coherent progression. In later episodes and series (and movies) the time stamps were more organized.
In the original Trek TV series for example, stardates were, in a word, bogus. In the series bible, the Star Trek Guide, writers were basically told to wing it. Here's a snippet (emphasis added):
Pick any combination of four numbers plus a percentage point [ed. note: tenths digit], use it as your story's stardate. For example, 1313.5 is twelve o'clock noon of one day and 1314.5 would be noon of the next day. Each percentage point is roughly equivalent to one-tenth of one day. The progression of stardates in your script should remain constant but don't worry about whether or not there is a progression from other scripts. Stardates are a mathematical formula which varies depending on location in the galaxy, velocity of travel, and other factors, can vary widely from episode to episode.[1]
By 1992, the writers had revised their guidelines to be iron-clad:
A Stardate is a five-digit number followed by a decimal point and one more digit. Example: "46254.7". The first two digits of the Stardate are "46." The 4 stands for the 24th Century, the 6 indicates sixth season. The following three digits will progress consecutively during the course of the season from 000 to 999. The digit following the decimal point counts tenths of a day. Stardate 45254.4, therefore, represents the noon hour on the 254th "day" of the fifth season. Because Stardates in the 24th Century are based on a complex mathematical formula, a precise correlation to Earth-based dating systems is not possible.
So, the one cross culture space show that had a form of time keeping was not really a time clock but a calendar of events which often appeared out of order. Obviously this particular time code doesn’t work very well when applied to real life but could be a basis for an actual time code system applicable to “galactic” time keeping.
Developing a “galactic” time methodology would need to be agreed upon by all Earth governments and science bodies. It would need to have an agreed upon start date and time and it would need to have elements that account for rotational periods (called the sidereal period) as well as having a format that would not become cumbersome as time progressed.
If you look at the geological “clock” we have developed to quantify various geological periods in Earths life, you will begin to see how easily things can become confusing to the lay person as well as being cumbersome.
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