How To: Make A Planetary Clock For Your Next Trip To Mars

I have written a lot of DIY articles on Bit Rebels, but I think this one has the most in-depth tutorial I’ve ever seen. Alexander Avtanski built a clock that can tell time on any planet according to how it rotates. It is all part of his Mars Clock Project.

My first question is, how does a person even come up with an idea to build such a thing? My second question is, how does a person test this to make sure it’s working properly? I have more questions, but I’ve digressed… back to the clock. Are you possibly planning a trip to Mars or any other planet for that matter? Depending on how geeky you are, you might know that an ordinary clock or watch that we use here on Earth is useless on other planets.

However, don’t worry, with just a LCD module, a 16-button keyboard and a PIC16F877A you can build a martian clock for yourself. You can view the complete tutorial including construction, operation, schematics, code and the how to on Avtanski. As long as we’re going all out, E.T. style, maybe someone will build a tutorial on how to phone home with a speak and spell. Now that would be super sweet! Mr. Avtanski says this is “high on the geekness scale.” Hmm… ya think?