Mars Year 1 is the first year of Martian timekeeping standard developed by Clancy et al. [1] originally for the purposes of working with the cyclical temporal variations of meteorological phenomena of Mars, but later used for general timekeeping on Mars. Mars Years have no officially adopted month systems. Scientists generally use two sub-units of the Mars Year:
Unlike in the day vs. sol distinction, "Mars Year" has no unique Latin term. Start and End dates of Mars Years were determined for 1607–2141 by Piqueux et al. [2] Earth and Mars dates can be converted in the Mars Climate Database, [3] however, the Mars Years are only rational to apply to events that take place on Mars.
Mars Year 1 started on 11 April 1955 and ended on 25 February 1957. [2] Mars Year 1 is preceded by Mars Year 0.
There was no spacecraft on or around Mars in Mars Year 1 (the first successful flyby occurred in Mars Year 6).
De Mottoni [4] [5] created two albedo maps, Kuiper made several drawings [6] Millman [7] made maps and detailed descriptions and Dollfus [8] observed the poles of Mars during the 1956 opposition.