Metric

This article is tagged for relocation to Scientifiction.org.

The Moon is Metric

It is time for America to bite the bullet.

It's Official

All work done on the Moon will be done in under System International (SI), also know as the Metric System. The SI term is more proper.

All design work will be done directly in SI and will not be done under other systems and then converted to SI. Such conversions are sometimes called soft metric and are unacceptable.

SI Converter for You

Here is an Excel spreadsheet that does American to SI conversions:

[SI Converter spreadsheet .xls]

Use in Our Stories

Using the following units in all stories and technical articles:

Length

Kilometer (km), meter (m), or millimeter (mm). All dimensions may be rounded off to the millimeter.

Velocity

Kilometers/hour (km/h), meters/second (m/s).

Mass

Kilograms (kg), grams (g), and milligrams (mg). Note that grams are units of mass not weight. They do not change in value in the Moon's low gravity, which pounds do. Also the word "ton" or "metric ton" means 1000 kilograms, or a Megagram.

Volume

Cubic meter, cubic decimeter, cubic centimeter. The cubic decimeter may be referred to by its slang name "liter".

Do not even mention

In our stories, do not event mention: feet, yards, miles, pounds, gallons, feet/second, etc.

Also, use kilometers and not Nautical Miles for navigation.

Time

Time of Day

Avoid the term "day" as the meaning is so different between the Earth and the Moon. In our stories we use the time interval "shift" of eight hours each as "first shift", "second shift", and "third shift".

Coordinated Universal Time

The first shift starts at zero hour Coordinated Universal Time (Grenage Mean Time). There is no daylight saving time on the Moon.

Dates

The term "Earth date", or simply "date", refers to the date on Earth at longitude 0.0 degrees.

Near Side and Far Side

The Moon has a "Near Side" and a "Far Side" as defined by the view from Earth. Note the capitalization. The Moon does not have a light side and a dark side, and neither does the Sun.

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