Time keeps on ticking, but on Mars it's slightly slower

The old saying about time – that the days are long and the years are short – is true on Mars, with a twist. Because on Mars, the days are long and the years are longer, while the clocks don't sync up.

That was my first takeaway from an article by Rebecca Jacobson of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the people who work to advance measurement science and help industry. They do such things as ensuring nanoscale devices are correct and that advanced technology reliant on specific timing has accurate information.

This, however, is slightly different. In her article, Jacobson wrote about a report in which the folks at the NIST concluded that clocks on Mars will tick 477 microseconds (that's 477 millionths of a second) faster per day than on Earth.

Don't think it's a lot? Well, over a typical human life (78.4 years), that would mean 13.6 seconds. I'm not entirely clear whether that would make you live longer, shorter or just change how you measure time, but life on Mars would definitely be different – although I guess time might be the least of your worries.

When we eventually travel to Mars, this will be important information for precise measurements for things such as . . . landing.

Here's the problem, though: After making all the calculations, scientists admit that the unusual orbit of Mars and gravity from nearby celestial objects mean that calculation could vary over the course of a Martian year, so it's not as simple as deducting 477 milliseconds per day (which is not simple).

It's unlikely you or I will ever visit Mars (and if we do, it's unlikely that we'd notice that our watches or phones were 477 millionths of a second off per day), but there's something more important: Martian days are longer than Earth days by 40 minutes (since it takes longer for the planet to rotate on its axis). Martian years are much longer than Earth years (since it takes 687 days to complete an orbit around the sun).

Put simply, if you're 50 years old on Earth, you'd only be 26.6 on Mars. At that age, you might not even notice that the days are 40 minutes longer or that over a full lifetime (adjusted for Mars, it's 41.6 years, not 78.4), there's an extra 13.6 seconds. The real point is that at 26.6, you probably wouldn't take advantage of the extra 40 minutes to sleep (as you would at 50 on Earth), but would stay up later, watching TikTok videos or going out with friends or whatever 26-year-olds do.

The NIST people's work is a tribute to ingenuity. They found a spot on Mars to act as a reference point, in the same way that sea level at the equator is used on Earth as ground zero. Martian gravity is five times weaker than on Earth (more good news! If you weigh 200 pounds on Earth, you'd weigh 40 pounds on Mars. You'd be much younger and skinnier!) and gravity helps calculate how time passes. Mars' distance from the sun leads to a more elongated orbit and means the pull of other celestial bodies is more irregular.

Got it? Neither do I.

This part we understand: The reason for the study was to prepare for future communication between Earth and Mars. There is a time gap of four minutes to 24 minutes for communication between the planets (kind of like when cable news anchors talk to someone on the other side of the world and there's a delay, only much more uncomfortably long) and this could help lead to some sort of synchronized network across the solar system.

This whole idea seems ridiculous, but they tell us it's important. 

However, I think it's gonna be a long, long time 'til touchdown brings me 'round here to find I'm not the man they think I am at home. Oh, no, no, no I'm a rocket man.

If I'm looking at it right, living on Mars could give you an extra 13.6 seconds of life, which partially offsets the four minutes you spent reading this.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.