Greetings Earthlings!

Mars Sky is considered one of the very few apps designed to be used on the surface of Mars. It's the must-have explorer's tool should you need the answer to any of the next questions:

- What is the Martian date and time of the place the place I crash landed?

- Where is the Earth within the sky so I can ship a misery call?

- What is the course of the Sun so I can discover my approach to the base?

Even should you're still secure and sound on the Earth, Mars Sky can inform you if it is daylight

where your probe landed, and whether or not it's in a position for the Earth to obtain its alerts.

So What Is It?

Mars Sky is an easy map of the sky that reveals at a glance the present positions of the sun and planets as seen from a location on the floor of Mars.

The high half of the map exhibits the sky above the horizon; the underside half reveals the sky below the horizon.

The our bodies of the solar system shown on the map embody:

- The Sun

- Mercury

- Venus

- Earth

- Jupiter

- Saturn

- Uranus

- Neptune

- Pluto

as well because the moons of Mars:

- Phobos

- Deimos

More actual position knowledge can be discovered on the Details List display screen, corresponding to::

- Distance from Mars

- Apparent Diameter

- Compass Bearing

- Azimuth

- Altitude

- Right Ascension *

- Declination *

- Celestial longitude and latitude *

(* Based on Mars' equator and orbital plane)

What is the Martian Date?

There is a choice of two completely different Martian calendars for displaying the present date:

* The Darian Calendar

* The Mars Simplified Calendar

Darian Calendar

The Darian calendar was designed by Thomas Gangale in 1985. It is considered one of several calendars designed to be used on Mars but is currently one of the in style.

There are 24 months of both 27 or 28 days in the Darian year which are named after the constellations of the zodiac; 12 from their Latin names and 12 from their Sanskrit names:

- Sagittarius

- Dhanus

- Capricornus

- Makara

- Aquarius

- Kumbha

- Pisces

- Mina

- Aries

- Mesha

- Taurus

- Rishabha

- Gemini

- Mithuna

- Cancer

- Karka

- Leo

- Simha

- Virgo

- Kanya

- Libra

- Tula

- Scorpius

- Vrishika

For complete info on how the calendar works visit Wikipedia. Future variations of the Mars Sky app may embody choices to use different Martian calendars.

Mars Simplified Calendar

This calendar is predicated on the Darian calendar however with modifications to make it extra intuitive for those of us used to the Earth based Gregorian calendar.

There are solely twelve months with the same names as these of the Gregorian calendar. Each month of the Mars Simplified Calendar (MSC) contains both 55 or 56 sols and covers exactly two months of the Darian calendar:

- March (Sagittarius and Dhanus)

- April (Capricornus and Makara)

- May (Aquarius and Kumbha)

- June (Pisces and Mina)

- July (Aries and Mesha)

- August (Taurus and Rishabha)

- September (Gemini and Mithuna)

- October (Cancer and Karka)

- November (Leo and Simha)

- December (Virgo and Kanya)

- January (Libra and Tula)

- February (Scorpius and Vrishika)

The year begins with March around the Mars vernal equinox, making the Martian seasons fall in roughly the same MSC months as their equivalents on Earth:

- March, April, May (northern spring / southern autumn)

- June, July, August (northern summer season / southern winter)

- September, October, November (northern autumn / southern spring)

- December, January, February (northern winter / southern summer)

The days of the week are the identical ones acquainted to us on Earth and repeat frequently in a seven sol cycle. There are no skipped weekdays.

What Location Coordinates on Mars Can I Use?

Any location on the surface of Mars actually. The app comes with a small predefined record of locations of interest corresponding to:

- Olympus Mons

- Cydonia

- Curiosity Rover

- Viking Landers 1 and 2

and many of the probes and rovers that have landed on Mars.

But you'll have the ability to add your personal locations to the list of areas by getting into the longitude and latitude of the place you have an interest in.