NASA scientist and family living on Martian time

David Oh, a flight director of NASA’s latest Mars mission, far left and his family have breakfast at 3 pm at their home in La Canada Flintridge, Calif. (AP photo).

Ever feel like you don’t have enough time in the day? Maybe you should set your watch to Martian time. That’s what David Oh and the NASA crew working on the Curiosity mission are doing. And it’s given him and his family a unique perspective on time and space.

The flight director explained to Ross and Burbank how Martian days are 40 minutes longer than on Earth.

“Every day, the rover wakes up at 10 a.m. on Mars time looking for orders from Earth,” he says. “All of us operators here on Earth have to operate on Mars time so that we can send commands to the rover.”

Oh says since his schedule changes daily, his wife figured the whole family should join in.

“She’s an engineer by background, so I think she really felt like it was a great way for her and the kids to participate in the adventure of exploring Mars.”

Oh says it’s been quite an adjustment, both physically and just trying to find things to do in the middle of the night as the rest of Earth is sound asleep.

“They love getting out and seeing all the stuff late at night. They love going out and eating breakfast at 4 a.m. and doing all-night bowling and going to the beach at midnight. For them it’s a great adventure,” Oh says of his three kids aged 8-13.

While the rest of the family will be happy to get back on Earth time (it takes about a month,) he’s more than happy to stay on Mars time, given all the discoveries being made on the Red Planet and the enthusiasm for the mission.

“I was surprised and happy to see how much landing on Mars, the space program still resonates with people.”

Oh is particularly excited about a successful test of a laser mounted atop the rover. It blasted away the surface of a small rock, giving scientists the ability to probe the material makeup of various Martian rocks.

He also tells Ross and Burbank he can’t wait for the rover to begin exploring Mars and climbing a large mountain near the landing zone.

“As we climb it, it’s going to be like climbing out of the Grand Canyon where you’re going out across different layers of material that were laid down at different times in Martian history,” Oh says.

“I think rather than go for one place we’re hoping that by going through all these different layers and going back through time on Mars, we’ll manage to hit the magic layer that has the information we want.”

He just hopes his family can get back on the same time to share the experience with him.

Josh Kerns/MyNorthwest.com Editor