Island A - warning long post

(Hi all. Sorry, I'm a new member. I usually intro myself before posting
but I don't have time right now. Just enough time for a little post.)

> Another thing you could do is rotate the working times for each
> crew ie the first crew work from 0:00 hours to 8:00 the second crew
> from 8:00 to 16:00 and the third from 16:00 to 24:00. The rest of
> the time would be split to 4 hours before shift / 4 hours after
> shift and the rest sleeping.

Why use weeks, months, years, and a 24 hour day? In space, you don't
need these time measurements. To wit:

24 hour day = rotation of the Earth
week = a religion-based measurement (see Genesis)
months = revolution of the Moon around the Earth
years = revolution of Earth around the sun

Why not create a "metric" time system? To wit:

1 metric year = OK, use the revolution of the Earth again
1 metric month = 1 deciyear = 1/10th of a year
1 metric week = 1 centiyear = 1/10th of a month
1 metric day = 1 milliyear = 1/10th of a week
etc.

Or keep a "24 hour day":

1 year = 1000 days
1 month = 100 days
1 week = 10 days (work 6, off 4, or whatever)
1 day = the same absolute length as now

Or whatever. Use the galactic year and break it down, if you like.
But why keep the current standards? Also, hasn't it been shown that
the human circadian rhythm is really more like 50-something hours
in length? I know that I personally would fare MUCH better if we had
something like 36 hour days.

Just ideas.

Darin Arrick
f r e e s p a c e f o u n d a t i o n @ y a h o o . c o m