Terran Standard Time

Terran Standard Time (TST) is the system used throughout known space to keep time. ComStar (and presumably Star League Ministry of Communications before) would synchronize the time on various worlds via the HPG network.

System

Apocryphal Content Starts

The information after this notice comes from apocryphal sources; the canonicity of such information is uncertain.
Please view the reference page for information regarding their canonicity.

In the Forward of the first issue of the BattleTechnology, William H. Keith wrote the following:

“

Terran Synchronised Time (abbreviated TST)…relates the time on any world to a traditional 24-hour clock set to the rising and setting of the local sun or suns. TST's variable "hours" may be as much as ten minutes shorter or longer than a standard, or "metric" hour, depending on the world's actual rotation. The 24-hour clock divides the local day into 24 equal periods, with 1200 hours corresponding to local noon. Thus, 0900 hours is mid-morning, while 1500 hours is mid-afternoon. All dates use the Terran standard calendar (abbreviated TC), which divides Earth's year into 12 months or 365.25 days, as measured by standardized metric time rather than the variable TST. TC dates are related to the current date, at 0° longitude (Greenwich), on Terra, and will have nothing to do with the seasons or local dates of worlds other than Earth.

”

Apocryphal Content Ends

Canonicity

While considered canon at the time of it's writing, periodicals have since been ruled to be apocryphal. While Terran Stand Time has been used since the very beginning of the BattleTech universe (and most recently in Shattered Fortress) there is not currently a canon definition of TST. On 7 April, 2022 Line Developer Ray Arrastia stated that "There's never been a need to revisit or expand upon [the System above]. Until there's a need, feel free to use that or not."

Bibliography

• BattleTechnology, Issue 0101
• Tactics of Duty