ABSTRACT

In 1985, Mars needed a calendar. The thought of a calendar for Mars first came to me through the John Carter series written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, but by 1985 I realized that there was no fully-developed and publicized calendar for Mars based in real figures for Mars. I was writing my own Martian stories and realized that my working class hero needed a calendar for his work and recreation schedule, that is, that the society he was helping build would need a unique calendar for Mars.

Because I was concerned with how a calendar could be used by pioneers of Mars, I avoided models that came to me with strengths in other areas. For instance, using Martian hours and minutes built on Martian seconds just slightly longer than terrestrial seconds would allow for 24 hours on Mars that makes for easy navigation, but constant conversions between terrestrial and Martian time measurements when attempting to share scientific data between the two worlds, two communities of humanity. Using twelve months for a Martian year seemed to extend the length of a month too far considering the length of the Martian year.

My original Areannum™ had fifteen months of forty five days, except the last month, and weeks of nine days, except the last week. Today, the Areannum™ consists of 25 months of 26 or 27 days and weeks of seven days.