With the rover Curiosity days away from landing on the Red Planet, Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Matt Heverly is getting ready to work on Mars time.
A day on Mars is roughly 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth, so each day, Heverly will come to JPL 40 minutes later than the previous day.
When Mars' rotation is in sync with Earth, he will start a normal shift at around 7 a.m. As Mars and Earth become out of sync, his schedule will become irregular and hectic. “Having to do that with day care pick-up and drop-off with little kids, it's going to be crazy,” said Heverly, a father of two.
The new schedule starts right away. The rover is set to land on Mars' Gale Crater around 10:31 p.m. on Aug. 5. Heverly will start work a few hours later, ready to drive the rover to a safe location if it lands on a slope or on top of a pile of rocks.
