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The Darian calendar is a complete timekeeping system for the 24-hour, 39-minute, 35.244-second sol and the 668.5907-sol vernal equinox year on Mars. Features include: 24 months, normally containing 28 sols, with three to four 27-sol months spaced regularly throughout the year to total either 668 or 669 sols. This results in a month whose length is within 6 percent of the mean Gregorian calendar month, within 3 percent of the lunar month, and near the statistical mean of the human menstrual cycle. A nominal seven-sol week, with six-sol weeks ending the 27-sol months, thus allowing every month to begin on the first sol of the week. The numerical sol of any month always occurs on the same sol of the week. Since the new year always begins on the first sol of the week, there are only two types of calendar years: one common year and one bissextile or “leap” year.

This study presents a projected crew task timeline and skill mix for the exploration of the lunar surface in the Habot mobile lunar habitat. It takes the approach of defining crew task sets for crews of 8, 6, and 4, crewmembers to carry out proportionate amounts of work, corresponding to how many crewmembers are on the mission. It provides for the division of responsibilities between crewmembers who perform EVA and IVA tasks, and between those who go on an excursion away from the base and those who remain at the base. A particular feature of the model is that the amount of time devoted to science is set as a constant -- an inviolable amount of crew time that normal maintenance and operations work cannot erode. The importance of this capability arises from the International Space Station experience in which sometimes only 100 crew-minutes per day, or even less, has been available for science.

Architecture is about designing space for people to live and work in. Horology and calendrics are about designing time systems for people to live by. They could collectively be called “time architecture.” To understand the design implications of the architecture of time requires a working knowledge of astronomy and mathematics, as well as a thorough understanding of how cultures have designed and used time throughout history. Time architecture is at the intersection of the space, the biomedical, and the social sciences. Timekeeping issues of human activities on the Moon and on Mars bring the considerations of time architecture into focus. The length of the Martian sol is close enough to that of the Earth day to serve as a useful regulator of the diurnal rhythms of humans on Mars, as well as other species we will bring with us. This is in stark contrast to the Moon’s 29-day cycle of day and night, which is far too long to serve such a purpose.