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star trek - What is a "Year" According to Starfleet?


We've all heard about the famous "five year mission" to explore strange new worlds and so on. And this question is asked with the thought that there might be issues with time dilation in warp drive or at high impulse speeds.



In chat, we were discussing this and one point came up: It's likely a "5 year mission" was based on 5 years according to Starfleet time. But every planet has a different year, different days, and months are basically culturally defined (if they're defined at all in some cultures).


So what is a Starfleet year? Is it an Earth standard year? An Earth leap year? A Vulcan year? When someone in Starfleet talks about a day or year, what is the basis for that measurement of elapsed time?



Note: I am not referring to dealing with issues of time dilation. I mean what constitutes a year according to Starfleet? Is it the time it takes Earth to complete an orbit around Sol? Is it an average between Earth's year and Vulcan's year? How long is a standard year in Starfleet, assuming no time dilation? If I am on a planet and won't be leaving it and start timing it NOW, will a Starfleet year last as long as an Earth year? As long as a Vulcan year? A Martian year?




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