Concerning Cecil response to the Star Trek “Star date” question I was wondering. IF and when we finally the ability to engage in maned long term deep space exploration how exactly with they be able to keep track of time passed relative to earth? Or for that matter does that even matter?
ETA: link to column: In “Star Trek,” what exactly are “star dates”? - The Straight Dope – Rico
It’s not as though we don’t have the mathematical tools. In fact, we already have to make relativistic allowances on the GPS satellites for the system to work.
One factor that Cecil doesn’t mention is that Roddenberry didn’t want any lines drawn between Star Trek and 1960s reality. If you rewatch the series in sequence now you can see that he hadn’t thought at all about the state of Earth, and it took a long time to establish the “United Federation of Planets” and “StarFleet” as part of the background, with much floundering along the way. Even the “USS” in “USS Enterprise” was a botch that had to be patched, and with a clumsy patch at that. “Star Dates” were part of that general obfuscating.
And let’s not forget that the beaming platform in TOS was made from parts from a shower room. There were improvements made in TNG, etc.
I’d guess that it would matter if there was still communications with Earth, i.e. “we’ll transmit our telemetry data and receive computer upgrade instructions from Houston at 0200 hours GMT on day 190 of the mission, using the clock we set before leaving Earth (and to which which we make small corrections if relativistic effects apply) as our guide”. Accurate timekeeping allows for coordinated communications and interactions (and since the Earth is rotating, the transmitting/receiving station on Earth must take this into account - it’d be a shame if a signal sent from Neptune was missed because it arrived during the day, i.e. when the dish wasn’t facing Neptune). If the ship travels wholly independently, it’s going to want to accurately keep track of time just for it’s own record-keeping. I suspect as it approached some colony or base or another ship and establishes communication, the first thing would be to synchronize timings with the local authority. Fortunately, clock technology has sufficiently advanced that the ship can carry more than one.