smoital

A Rust library for practical Martian timekeeping compatible with Earth-based ISO8601 standards.

Based on the 2025 paper "The Smoital System" by Ben Joffe, this library implements a system that allows Martian colonies to track Mean Solar Time using standard Earth computing primitives (UTC offsets and IANA timezones).

The Concept

Designing a timekeeping system for Mars balances familiarity with Earth conventions against the reality of a 24h 39m 35s Martian day (Sol).

The Smoital System solves this by defining nearly all Martian calendar days as exactly 24 hours and 40 minutes long (Standard Days), compensated by inserting 6 or 7 "Smol Days" (24 hours exactly) per Martian year.

Instead of redefining the second or minute (which breaks software compatibility), Smoital relies on strategic UTC Timezone Offsets:

• Standard Days: The timezone shifts back by 40 minutes daily to accommodate the longer day.
• Smol Days: Occur specifically on the $37^{th}$ day of a 37-day "Smonth" and are fixed at UTC-12:00.
• Interoperability: Allows Mars time to be stored in standard SQL databases and displayed on legacy OS clocks without modification.

Features

• Heuristic Smonth Scheduling: Implements the algorithm to determine the 36/37-day month pattern for any Martian year.
• Equatorial Schedule: Pre-configured schedule optimized for equatorial settlements (consistent 36/37 day pattern).
• Optimized Clock Display: Logic to disambiguate the "Extra 40 Minutes" (XM) that occur when a timezone shifts back.
• Precise Durations: MarsDuration types using the exact Mars/Earth ratio ($1.02749125$).
• IANA Rule Generation: Utilities to generate standard IANA timezone file formats for OS integration.

Installation

Add this to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
smoital = "0.1.0"
chrono = "0.4"

Usage

1. Determining Martian Timezone Offsets

Calculate the correct UTC offset for any day of the year using the Equatorial Schedule.

use smoital::{SmonthSchedule, EquatorialSchedule};

fn main() {
    let schedule = EquatorialSchedule::new();

    // Day 0 (Start of Year): Standard 36-day month
    let offset_start = schedule.get_timezone_offset(0);
    println!("Day 0 Offset: {}", offset_start); // +12:00

    // Day 252 (A "Smol" Day): 37th day of a long Smonth
    let offset_smol = schedule.get_timezone_offset(252);
    println!("Day 252 Offset: {}", offset_smol); // -12:00
}

2. The "Optimized" Clock (Handling the 24:40 Day)

On Mars, a standard day is 24h 40m. Standard Earth clocks will repeat the time 23:20 to 23:59 when the timezone shifts back. The SmoitalClock provides unambiguous display formats for this "Gap".

use chrono::{Utc, TimeZone};
use smoital::{SmoitalClock, DisplayMode};

fn main() {
    // A time inside the "Extra 40 Minutes" (e.g., 23:30 UTC)
    // On a standard clock, this looks like 23:30. 
    // In Smoital, this is actually part of the extended day.
    let time = Utc.with_ymd_and_hms(2025, 1, 1, 23, 30, 0).unwrap();

    // 1. "Overflow" Mode (24:00 - 24:39)
    let overflow = SmoitalClock::format(time, DisplayMode::Overflowed);
    println!("Overflow: {}", overflow); 
    // Output: "24:10:00"

    // 2. "XM" (Extra Meridian) Mode (12:00 XM - 12:39 XM)
    let xm = SmoitalClock::format(time, DisplayMode::XM);
    println!("XM Mode:  {}", xm); 
    // Output: "12:10:00 XM"
}

3. Precise Mars Duration

Handle scientific calculations using the exact Earth-to-Mars second ratio.

use smoital::MarsDuration;

fn main() {
    // Create a duration of 100 Martian seconds
    let mars_duration = MarsDuration::from_mars_seconds(100.0);
    
    // Convert to Earth seconds
    // Ratio: 1 Mars sec = 1.02749125 Earth sec
    println!("Earth Seconds: {:.8}", mars_duration.as_earth_seconds());
    // Output: 102.74912500
}

4. Working with a Calendar Year

Tie a schedule to a specific year so you can navigate between day_of_year values and SmoitalDate instances.

use smoital::{EquatorialSchedule, SmoitalDate, SmoitalYear};

fn main() {
    let year = SmoitalYear::new(2030, EquatorialSchedule::new());
    let smol_day = SmoitalDate {
        year: 2030,
        smonth: 6, // 0-indexed Smonth
        day: 37,
    };

    let day_index = year.day_of_year(&smol_day).unwrap(); // 252
    let offset = year.timezone_offset_for_date(&smol_day).unwrap();

    println!("Day {day_index} offset: {offset}");
}

Background

The "Smol" Day

To keep the calendar synchronized with the actual solar day, Smoital introduces Smol Days. These are days where the "extra" 40 minutes are omitted.

• Frequency: ~6 or 7 times per Martian Year.
• Identification: Always the $37^{th}$ day of a Smonth.
• Result: A built-in correction for Mars' highly variable Equation of Time.

Smonths

A "Smonth" (Synodic Month) is a period of 36 or 37 days. It represents the time it takes for the timezone offset to cycle from UTC+12:00 to UTC-12:00.

• Standard Smonth: 36 Days (Days 1-36).
• Long Smonth: 37 Days (Days 1-37). The 37th day is a Smol Day.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License.