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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
UTC: its history & future
From: Paul Hirose
Date: 2005 Jun 2, 23:51 -0700
From: Paul Hirose
Date: 2005 Jun 2, 23:51 -0700
The papers presented at the 2003 "Special Colloquium on the Future of the UTC Time Scale" are online in PDF: http://www.ien.it/luc/cesio/itu/ITU.shtml The papers look interesting, but I haven't had time to do more than skim the first one, which seems to be an overview of the conference objectives and conclusions. Bottom line: Celestial navigation requirement for UT1-UTC appears significantly reduced. Most apparent impact of a new time system: software. Transition to alternative timescale considered difficult. UTC tied to current telecommunication and civil infrastructure. Modification or change of generally available and used system would require substantial changes.