Tutorial Unix time in Orbiter

[Sbb1413]

Unix time (also known as POSIX time or UNIX Epoch time) is a system for describing a point in time. It is the number of seconds that have elapsed since 00:00:00 Thursday, 1 January 1970, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), minus leap seconds. Every day is treated as if it contains exactly 86400 seconds, so leap seconds are to be subtracted since the epoch. It is used widely in Unix-like and many other operating systems and file formats. However, Unix time is not a true representation of UTC, as a leap second in UTC shares the same Unix time as the second which came before it. Unix time may be checked on most Unix systems by typing [date +%s] on the command line.

-Wikipedia​

To get the Unix time in Orbiter, clone any scenario and change the MJD with the following:

40587.000000

And the simulation time is your Unix time, just don't save any state.

 

[Linguofreak]

Strictly speaking, Unix time uses the SI second, not the fraction-of-a-day second, even though it assumes exactly 86400 seconds in a day, so without a leap second table, you can't convert exactly between Unix time and MJD.

 

[Urwumpe]

Strictly speaking, Unix time uses the SI second, not the fraction-of-a-day second, even though it assumes exactly 86400 seconds in a day, so without a leap second table, you can't convert exactly between Unix time and MJD.

Does Orbiter even model the tiny variations of Earths rotation rate?

 

[Linguofreak]

Does Orbiter even model the tiny variations of Earths rotation rate?

I'd think it would need to so as not to cause problems with historical missions.