Mar 18, 17 / Ari 21, 01 01:42 UTC
A science based alternative to the (proposed) Asgardian calendar ¶
I have made no secret of my dislike of the idea of the Asgardian calendar presented in Decree N2. I am still waiting for a logical and/or scientific argument to be presented as to why this calendar will serve Asgardia better at this point in time than the currently broadly accepted Gregorian calendar. However, I have spent enough time registering my disdain for this idea, so I thought I would propose a science based alternative.
By no means do I profess that this is a complete idea - more of a working concept to be built upon by those with far extensive knowledge than me in the fields of astronomy and relativity.
Pulsars, as I'm sure some of you already know, are fast rotating neutron stars / white dwarf stars that emit a concentrated streams of electromagnetic radiation, much like a lighthouse. The rotational period of a pulsar is very short and regular, however, not completely precise. There is a specific type of pulsar, called milisecond pulsars, that (as the name suggests) have an extremely rapid rotation and much higher precision. By combining the measurements from several millisecond pulsars, you can create an array that can account for the various sources of variation / error and create a "clock" that has an accuracy that rivals atomic clocks which can be calibrated to any existing standard measure of time (for example, the existing TT(BIPM11) standard).
Using this method, you can still designate 0:00 hours on 1 January 2017 as T=0 and build any construct of time you want around this - base 10, hexidecimal, base 27, base 60, stardate, whatever tickles your fancy. There would be no need to incorporate leap years, leap seconds, year days, etc as this measurement is not related to the motion of the Earth through space. I would suggest though that whatever system is chosen, a "day" would still have to be close to 24 Earth hours since humans have evolved to operate optimally on this timeframe. This new time system could then be related back to "Earth time" by use of a simple algorithm.
So you're all probably thinking "So what? This is just another way to measure time." However, there are two distinct advantages of a space faring nation measuring time this way.
You may also be able to create an in-built Galactic Positioning System - The GPS in your car and smart phone measures time delay among a series of satellites to pinpoint your location on Earth. If there was a wide enough spread of reference millisecond pulsars, it is possible (at least in theory) to apply the same technique and pinpoint your location in the galaxy. NASA is working on such a system right now and plans to test it with the NICER/SEXTANT mission slated for the ISS this year.
You can account for the relativistic effects of long / fast space travel - Knowing the position and orbital period of a wide spread of pulsars provides many external frames of references. This can allow for time dilation effects to be measured and accounted, allowing space habitats / vessels to run two clocks: a "local" time and an Earth reference time. In LEO or even in low speed (relative to the speed of light) excursions into our solar system, this discrepancy is going to be small. However, when we do crack a way for travelling at speeds greater than 1/2c, this method will allow the occupants of that ship to keep an accurate track of "Terra Time".
So there it is, my concept for an alternative way of measuring time - A little more sophisticated than a tweaked version of an Egyptian sundial. Let the discussion begin!