The Mars Science Laboratory, otherwise known as the Curiosity
rover, has safely landed on the red planet. While NASA engineers
can now breath a sigh of relief, for a small army of people, the
work on Mars has really just begun. For the foreseeable future a
group of scientists, engineers and rover drivers will, in a
sense, not be living on our planet. They will be undertaking
shifts in line with Mars-time, sufficiently out of sync with us
here on Earth to make the experience feel like permanent jet-
lag. A day, or Sol, on Mars is 24.6 hours (37-and-a-half minutes
longer than an Earth day) so over two weeks they will be nine
hours out of sync with Earth. The shifts will last for the whole
of the primary mission, planned over a whole Martian year (687
Earth days). These scientists, engineers and rover drivers are
in it for the long haul, and if Curiosity has anywhere near the
success of Sprit and Opportunity then the mission could last
longer. Both of the Mars Explorer Rovers were pitched to last 90
sols and now,