View source for Template:Age in sols/doc

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==Usage==
This template returns the number of sols, or Mars solar days, between two Earth dates. If the second set of parameters is not included it will automatically calculate the days between a given date and today.  It is based on the product of the count of Earth days past and the ratio of the length of Earth's solar day length (86400 seconds) with a Mars solar day (88775.24409 seconds), rounded to the nearest sol.  That ratio comes from technical notes on time keeping on Mars from NASA's [[Goddard Spaceflight Center]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Allison|first=Michael|title=Technical Notes on Mars Solar Time as Adopted by the Mars24 Sunclock|url=http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/mars24/help/notes.html|publisher=Goddard Spaceflight Center|accessdate=17 November 2012|author2=Robert Schmunk}}</ref> 

To use, type: 
:<nowiki>{{age in sols|month1= |day1= |year1= |month2= |day2= | year2=}}</nowiki>

Or with unnamed parameters:
:<nowiki>{{age in sols|year1|month1|day1|year2|month2|day2}}</nowiki>  displays sols between two Earth dates
or 
:<nowiki>{{age in sols|year1|month1|day1}}</nowiki> displays sols since a given Earth date

Examples:
*<nowiki>{{age in sols|2004|01|04|2010|03|22}} </nowiki> gives {{age in sols|2004|01|04|2010|03|22}} sols that [[Spirit rover]] was operational on Mars
*<nowiki>{{age in sols|2012|8|6}}</nowiki> gives {{age in sols|2012|8|6}} sols since the [[Mars Science Laboratory]] landed on Mars

This template was created for use on Mars mission pages, NASA ones in particular, which identify mission milestones based on the mission sol which begins with sol 0 on the landing date for rover and landers and the orbital insertion date for orbiters.  Examples include:
* [[Viking 1]]
* [[Viking 2]]
* [[Mars Pathfinder]]
* [[Spirit rover]]
* [[Opportunity rover]]
* [[Mars Science Laboratory]]

This template is useful for converting any span of Earth days into the appropriate number of sols with precision of ~ +/- 1 sol due because it rounds to the nearest sol.

== See also ==
* {{tl|Age in days}} - Age in Earth days
* {{tl|Curiosity Mission Timer}}
* [[Timekeeping on Mars]] 
* [[Wikipedia:Age calculation templates]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

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