A Sundial for Mars
When
Mars Surveyor arrives at Mars in 2002,
it will carry a sundial.
Even though batteries and a solar array will power the
Mars Surveyor Lander,
the sundial has been included to allow a
prominent public display of time.
The sundial idea was the brainchild of
Bill Nye the Science Guy,
who noticed that a post originally used for
camera calibration could be redesigned.
Millennia ago,
sundials
were
state-of-the-art timekeepers for humans on Earth.
Since the Sun casts similar shadows on Mars and Earth,
accurate calibration of the shadow placement on the
Martian Sundial will tell a curious inspector of
returned images both the time of day and the season.