Universal Calendar

Since the majority of humanity no longer resides on Earth, it no longer makes sense to use the old Earth calendar. A new system of measuring time was devised to keep an intergalactic standard - the Universal Calendar. It is used in space and a standard to hold local calendars against. The first Standard Solar Sweep (SSS) was set to begin the date when the Universal Calendar was first established, on New Year’s Day, 2103. It would currently be New Year’s Day, 2335,  if the old calendar were still used. This means that the standard date at the launch of Project Horizon would be the 243rd Standard Solar Sweep, 87th Stage, Cycle 8.

Second
The base unit of time in the International Standard of Units.

Cycle
Based on the average human sleeping cycle, the cycle is equivalent to 30 000 seconds or roughly 8 Earth hours. Most people sleep one out of three cycles.

Stage
One Stage is equivalent to 10 cycles.

Standard Solar Sweep
One Standard Solar Sweep (SSS) is equivalent to 100 Stages or roughly 347 Earth days. It is the social equivalent of a year.

Presentation of Dates
The date is presented as follows:

[SSS]:[Stage]:[Cycle]

The seconds is usually omitted unless a very specific time needs to be specified. When it is included, the date appears as:

[SSS]:[Stage]:[Cycle]:[Seconds]

For example, the server date began on: 243:87:8. If we wanted to specify the time along with the date, it would read: 243:87:8:12 000.

If you wanted to use the long format, you would say: the 243rd Standard Solar Sweep, 87th Stage, Cycle 8.

Time may also be referred to alone, simply as 12 000.

Standardisation of Local Calendars
Local calendars can vary wildly in design due to the varying nature of planets’ rotation and orbit. However, they all contain two crucial elements: the local day, and the local solar sweep (year). In order to convert between local calendars and the Universal Calendar, each local calendar should have recorded the length of their local day and local solar sweep.

For example, Ontalor’s local day is 4.32 cycles long, and the local solar sweep is 0.93 standard solar sweeps. Every local calendar MUST have this information in order to make conversions.

In addition, the local calendar’s year does not begin at 0. It always begins with respect to the beginning of the Universal Calendar. This makes it easy to convert between years. To find Ontalor’s local solar sweep, you simply multiply the standard solar sweeps by 0.93.

On Ontalor, the 243rd Standard Solar Sweep is equivalent to the 225th Local Solar Sweep.