Shabbat (and other times) on Mars
May. 1st, 2007 11:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioI was recently asked about this, and I don't know what the current thinking is.
The question of when an astronaut observes Shabbat (while in space) is well-understood. [1] But what happens when we colonize other planets and your hometown is on Mars? Do you count six Mars-days and observe the seventh as Shabbat? How long is a month (and how do you decide which moon)? Is it still desirable to stay in sync with Earthly seasons, or will that go out the window? If you follow the sun as locally experienced, what happens when that causes hardship? (Does the lunar colony observe one ~29-day Shabbat every seven months?) There must be commentary on this by now from sources other than Wandering Stars, but I don't know what the popular opinion is.
[1] I know of three opinions for the astronaut in space: follow your hometown, follow the city from which you launched (your port of departure, like for ships), or follow Jerusalem. All of these involve a ~25-hour Shabbat every seven days, like on Earth, even though your orbit might cause you to see a 90-minute day. But the astronaut is, by definition, just visiting.
The question of when an astronaut observes Shabbat (while in space) is well-understood. [1] But what happens when we colonize other planets and your hometown is on Mars? Do you count six Mars-days and observe the seventh as Shabbat? How long is a month (and how do you decide which moon)? Is it still desirable to stay in sync with Earthly seasons, or will that go out the window? If you follow the sun as locally experienced, what happens when that causes hardship? (Does the lunar colony observe one ~29-day Shabbat every seven months?) There must be commentary on this by now from sources other than Wandering Stars, but I don't know what the popular opinion is.
[1] I know of three opinions for the astronaut in space: follow your hometown, follow the city from which you launched (your port of departure, like for ships), or follow Jerusalem. All of these involve a ~25-hour Shabbat every seven days, like on Earth, even though your orbit might cause you to see a 90-minute day. But the astronaut is, by definition, just visiting.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-02 11:40 am (UTC)I'd guess that a lunar colony would use 24-hour earth time, since the Lunar days wouldn't make much sense. In that case, it's easy -- use the start/end times for shabbat in the largest (or most convenient) city with a Jewish population in the timezone the colony uses.
Mars, now, is tricky. The Mars day is just a bit more than 25 hours, right? If the colony starts keeping "Mars days", then Shabbat would have to be every 7th day, or else you'd have wacky things like starting shabbat at noon, local time. The problem then becomes that the calendar for Jews on Mars would start to drift... so I dunno. Maybe it could be solved by removing some of the 2-day rosh chodeshes?
I'd also hope that fasts wouldn't end up being significantly longer than on Earth.
Of course, all this is just off the top of my head, and I am not a Rabbi.