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The QS Calendar is a 20-month calendar for Mars. QS is short for QuintSol.
A Quint is the Martian month equivalent and a Sol is a Martian day.
Together they describe a Martian year. Quint means five in latin. The
name was selected because in it's initial stages the calendar was called
the SQS Calendar, standing for SeasonQuintSol, where every season was
divisible by 5 quints. A Season is 90 degrees of the total orbit so
a quint is 18 degrees. Because the elliptic orbit of Mars not every
quint has the same amount of sols [see table 1].
|
Quint
|
Length
|
Quint
|
Length
|
|
Number
|
Name
|
Abbr.
|
 Q01 |
Qalfa
|
[Qα]
|
Q02 |
Qbeta
|
[Qβ]
|
Q03 |
Qgamma
|
[Qγ]
|
Q04 |
Qdelta
|
[Qδ]
|
Q05 |
Qepsilon
|
[Qε]
|
Q06 |
Qzeta
|
[Qζ]
|
Q07 |
Qeta
|
[Qη]
|
Q08 |
Qtheta
|
[Qθ]
|
Q09 |
Qiota
|
[Qι]
|
Q10 |
Qkappa
|
[Qκ]
|
|
|
Degrees
|
Sols
|
Ls
= 0-18
|
37
|
Ls
= 19-36
|
38
|
Ls
= 37-54
|
39
|
Ls
= 55-72
|
40
|
Ls
= 73-90
|
40
|
Ls
= 91-108
|
39
|
Ls
= 109-126
|
38
|
Ls
= 127-144
|
36
|
Ls
= 145-162
|
34
|
Ls
= 163-180
|
31
|
|
|
Number
|
Name
|
Abbr.
|
Q11 |
Qlabda
|
[Qλ]
|
Q12 |
Qmu
|
[Qμ]
|
Q13 |
Qnu
|
[Qν]
|
Q14 |
Qxi
|
[Qξ]
|
Q15 |
Qomnikron
|
[Qο]
|
Q16 |
Qpi
|
[Qπ]
|
Q17 |
Qrho
|
[Qρ]
|
Q18 |
Qsigma
|
[Qσ]
|
Q19 |
Qtau
|
[Qτ]
|
Q20 |
Qupsilon
|
[Qυ]
|
|
|
Degrees
|
Sols
|
Ls
= 181-198
|
31
|
Ls
= 199-216
|
29
|
Ls
= 217-234
|
28
|
Ls
= 235-252
|
28
|
Ls
= 253-270
|
27
|
Ls
= 271-188
|
28
|
Ls
= 189-306
|
30
|
Ls
= 307-324
|
30
|
Ls
= 325-342
|
32
|
Ls
= 343-360
|
34
|
|
| Legend |
| |
Northern Spring |
|
Northern Summer |
|
Northern Autumn |
|
Northern Winter |
Table 1: Quint description |
The QS Calendar uses sols as the Martian day unit. One sol is ~88775
Earth seconds long, ~2375 Earth seconds longer than the Earth day. The
sol uses the 24x60x60 system so Mars hours, minutes and seconds are
longer than the Earth counterparts. This is usefull for every day life
on Mars, but it makes it complicated for a scientist to compare Earth
and Mars data. Technology is used to solve this problem. All devices
on Mars which somehow use time can be programmed for Mars or Earth time
and can easily convert between them.
The start of a new year at Ls = 0 during the
Northern Spring Equinox [NSE] is selected because during the NSE both
hemispheres are in a transitional phase between, for the North, Winter
and Summer, and for the South, Summer and Winter. During the equinox
both hemisphere receive the same amount of solar energy.
The QS Calendar doesn’t use weeks. Instead it uses a simple QuintSol
abbreviation system. For example the 11th sol of quint 04 can be abbreviated
to Q04S11. If you use the
greek alfabet system you can abbreviate that same 11th of Qdelta to
11 Qδ. Although the QS Calendar doesn't use weeks they
can still be very easily implemented into the calendar. Every community
of colonists has to decide for themselves if they want to use weeks
[for a religious reason for example]. The QS Calendar however is the
standard for Mars and has to be used to avoid communication conflicts.
Leap years
It takes Mars 668.5906 sols to complete its path around the sun, thus
one Martian year.
The QS Calendar uses 669 sols in a year so leap years
were devised, so the time accounted too much is 0.4094 sols. This number
is splitted into 0.4 and 0.0094. The first number is used for the 100
year leap year cycle, the smallest number for the 10000 year leap year
cycle. Therefore within 100 years 40 sols need to be deducted. The same
applies to every 10000 years where 94 sols need to be deducted.
The QS Calendar doesn’t use fixed leap years. A day is deleted
only when needed, for example take the Quint Qalfa with 37 sols. The
exact Ls = 18 to Ls = 19
transition takes place that 37th sol. Because of the 0.4094 sols accounted
too much every year the exact Martian year falls behind the 669 sols
year. This would eventually cause the Ls = 18-19
transition taking place during the 36th sol. When this occurs the 37th
sol is cancelled. This applies to all Quints.
Epoch
The QS Calendar officially started the moment 'The
First' touched down on the 29th of September 2023 when John Howard
took his first steps on another planet saying his famous words "Jesus,
it's cold out here!". Some Quints before however, on the
26th of December 2022 (UTC 10:06:26), the actual first Mars year of
the QS Calendar had started. When 'The First' landed the QS Calendar
was already at Q8S29.
Prime Meridian
As on Earth Mars is divided into longitudinal and latitudinal degrees.
The longitudinal prime meridian of Mars is located at the center of
a crater called Airy-0. Exactly on the opposite side of this location,
the first sol of Myear 1 started.
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