Space aging question…
Discussion
I'm not sure if this has been asked before but I had a thought this morning about humans aging in space when we live on a different planet. How will we judge time and age when in the future we could be living on Mars, for example? Will we still base it on Earth? Or will age and time be different on Mars?
Say two people were born on Earth and Mars at exactly the same instant and the person on Earth lived until they were 80 years old. Would the person on Mars be 80 too? Or would they only be 42.5 years old?
Not sure if I've worded it correctly as it sounded better in my head
but it got me thinking about long in to the future when we're (hopefully) a space fairing civilisation and how we're going to judge peoples ages!
Say two people were born on Earth and Mars at exactly the same instant and the person on Earth lived until they were 80 years old. Would the person on Mars be 80 too? Or would they only be 42.5 years old?
Not sure if I've worded it correctly as it sounded better in my head
but it got me thinking about long in to the future when we're (hopefully) a space fairing civilisation and how we're going to judge peoples ages!GTO-3R said:
I'm not sure if this has been asked before but I had a thought this morning about humans aging in space when we live on a different planet. How will we judge time and age when in the future we could be living on Mars, for example? Will we still base it on Earth? Or will age and time be different on Mars?
Say two people were born on Earth and Mars at exactly the same instant and the person on Earth lived until they were 80 years old. Would the person on Mars be 80 too? Or would they only be 42.5 years old?
Best to stick to Earth years I think. More important is day length; we've evolved to fit 24 hour days.Say two people were born on Earth and Mars at exactly the same instant and the person on Earth lived until they were 80 years old. Would the person on Mars be 80 too? Or would they only be 42.5 years old?
Mars is pretty much the only planet we have a minuscule possibility of reaching and surviving on for more than one earth year, even that is decades if not centuries away from happening.
Given that a simple conversion factor could be used or just stick to earth years. I don’t suspect many will last many years on Mars anyway given it’s incredible dangerous to human life and other humans would be there, isolated from humanity for years/decades in small groups - I think we all now how that ends.
If we have some Valerian type event it’d get pretty complicated pretty fast!
Given that a simple conversion factor could be used or just stick to earth years. I don’t suspect many will last many years on Mars anyway given it’s incredible dangerous to human life and other humans would be there, isolated from humanity for years/decades in small groups - I think we all now how that ends.
If we have some Valerian type event it’d get pretty complicated pretty fast!
EmailAddress said:
I meant Earth relative to Mars aging. Not rotations around the sun to existence since birth.
i.e Space time paradox type things. Where who is measuring will have a differing perspective.
If you mean relativity due to the speed of travel, you need to be doing a decent chunk of 'c' for that game.i.e Space time paradox type things. Where who is measuring will have a differing perspective.
The distance is between two points is immaterial once you're there (I think).
Simpo Two said:
If you mean relativity due to the speed of travel, you need to be doing a decent chunk of 'c' for that game.
The distance is between two points is immaterial once you're there (I think).
Also time dilation effect due to gravity;The distance is between two points is immaterial once you're there (I think).
https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/33590/wh...
EmailAddress said:
I meant Earth relative to Mars aging. Not rotations around the sun to existence since birth.
i.e Space time paradox type things. Where who is measuring will have a differing perspective.
I would think the distance between earth and mars would make adjustments for relativity practically meaningless. Like, minisculely small.i.e Space time paradox type things. Where who is measuring will have a differing perspective.
bigandclever said:
EmailAddress said:
I meant Earth relative to Mars aging. Not rotations around the sun to existence since birth.
i.e Space time paradox type things. Where who is measuring will have a differing perspective.
I would think the distance between earth and mars would make adjustments for relativity practically meaningless. Like, minisculely small.i.e Space time paradox type things. Where who is measuring will have a differing perspective.
This sounds like a discussion about identity politics.
Assuming we reach the stage where people are born on Mars and live a full life there, I have no doubt people will initially measure their birthday and age as though they were on Earth. Give it a few generations and that will change as ‘Martians’ want to develop their own ‘identity’, distinct from Earth. They will measure their age based on Mars’ orbit around the Sun.
The physiological effects of orbiting further away from the gravitational centre of the solar system will be miniscule. Living in lower gravity in an artificial ecosystem will be the bigger concern on human againg.
Assuming we reach the stage where people are born on Mars and live a full life there, I have no doubt people will initially measure their birthday and age as though they were on Earth. Give it a few generations and that will change as ‘Martians’ want to develop their own ‘identity’, distinct from Earth. They will measure their age based on Mars’ orbit around the Sun.
The physiological effects of orbiting further away from the gravitational centre of the solar system will be miniscule. Living in lower gravity in an artificial ecosystem will be the bigger concern on human againg.
Edited by SpudLink on Monday 5th December 16:17
SpudLink said:
This sounds like a discussion about identity politics.
By coincidence, someone recently wanted to change their age. They said that they can change their name legally and change their sex legally, so they should be able to change their age legally too...SpudLink said:
Assuming we reach the stage where people are born on Mars and live a full life there, I have no doubt people will initially measure their birthday and age as though they were on Earth. Give it a few generations and that will change as ‘Martians’ want to develop their own ‘identity’, distinct from Earth. They will measure their age based on Mars’ orbit around the Sun.
They may do, but will need to invent some new months to fill up the 687 day year....Gassing Station | Science! | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff