Three Sunrises Before Lunch

You wake up in Stickney Base, built into Phobos's largest crater. Your alarm shows 07:00 Phobos Time. You check the Orbit Counter: Orbit 2,847 of your mission. That's... 38 Mars days. You've been here 5 weeks.

The Morning Race

You stumble to the observation window, and there it is: Mars. ENORMOUS. UNMOVING. Taking up nearly half the sky, its red-orange surface covered in craters, canyons, and polar ice caps. You can see individual volcanoes. You can see Valles Marineris like a scar across the face of the planet.

Mars doesn't rise or set. It just... sits there. Rotating. You watch carefully and can see the surface moving—the Tharsis Bulge is rotating into view. In a few hours, Olympus Mons will be visible.

But forget Mars for a moment. You need to catch the sunrise.

You check your watch: 07:15. The sun will rise in the WEST in about 10 minutes. You suit up quickly and head to the western viewing platform.

Sunrise #1: Western Sunrise

07:23 - The sun breaks the western horizon.

It's surreal. Every instinct screams that sunrises happen in the east. But on Phobos, the sun rises in the west because Phobos orbits Mars faster than Mars rotates. From Phobos's perspective, Mars appears to rotate backwards, and the sun gets "left behind" and rises from the "wrong" direction.

You watch the sun climb for 15 minutes, then head inside. You have work to do.

4 Hours of Daylight

Your shift begins. You work for 4 hours on experiments, maintenance, and sample collection. Through the window, the sun arcs across the black sky. It moves fast—you can see it moving if you watch for a few minutes.

Mars, meanwhile, barely rotates. The Tharsis region has moved slightly, but Mars's rotation is SLOW compared to Phobos's frantic orbit.

11:45 - Sunset #1. The sun touches the eastern horizon and disappears. You've had 4 hours and 22 minutes of sunlight.

First Sunset, Second Sunrise

You eat a quick lunch. Outside, it's dark. The stars are brilliant. Mars is in "Gibbous" phase—not quite full—casting a dim red light across Phobos's surface.

You work through the darkness for 2 hours. Then—

14:02 - Sunrise #2. The sun rises in the west again.

You've seen two sunrises before most people on Mars have finished their morning coffee.

Watching Mars Turn

Your colleague, Dr. Reeves, is obsessed with watching Mars rotate. She's set up a camera to track surface features.

"Look," she says, pointing at the monitor. "Olympus Mons was on the eastern edge this morning. Now it's nearly centered. By tonight, it'll be on the western edge."

One full Mars rotation = 24.6 hours. One Phobos orbit = 7.66 hours. So Mars rotates about 120° during each of your orbits. You complete 3.2 orbits while Mars completes one rotation.

It's dizzying to think about.

Sunset #2, Sunrise #3

18:26 - Sunset #2. The sun sets in the east again. You've now seen two complete sunrises and two complete sunsets, and it's not even dinnertime.

You take a break, grab dinner, review data. Outside, darkness again. Mars continues its slow rotation.

20:45 - Sunrise #3 of the day.

"Third sunrise!" announces the base AI cheerfully. "You are experiencing your third solar dawn of this Martian sol."

Dr. Reeves laughs. "Nobody on Mars has had three sunrises today except us."

Time Becomes Meaningless

Later, you check the calendar:

- Earth time: You've been here 38 days

- Mars time: You've been here 37 sols (Mars days)

- Phobos orbits: You've experienced 2,847 orbits

- Phobos sunrises: You've seen ~5,400 sunrises

How do you count your life here? In sunrises? In orbits? In Mars days?

The base keeps Earth time for sleep schedules, but it's absurd. You go to sleep during "daylight" and wake up in "darkness" because Phobos's day-night cycle doesn't care about your sleep schedule.

The View That Never Changes, And Always Changes

You return to the window before bed. Mars is there, massive, unchanging in position. But the surface has rotated—Olympus Mons is now on the western limb, about to rotate out of view.

The sun has set for the third time today. It will rise in the west again in a few hours, while you sleep.

Tomorrow, you'll see three more sunrises. Three more sunsets. Mars will complete another rotation. Phobos will complete another 3.2 orbits.

Time on Phobos doesn't flow—it races. And standing on this doomed moon, watching the sun rise in the west for the third time today, you realize: time is whatever the universe wants it to be.