This is referred to in mission planning as Hybrid Local Solar Time (HLST). The time scales are uniform in the sense of mean solar time (they are actually mean time of some longitude), and are not adjusted as the rovers travel. (The rovers have traveled distances that make a few seconds difference to local solar time.)
Answer: An independent variable is exactly what it sounds like. It is a variable that stands alone and isn't changed by the other variables you are trying to measure. For example, someone's age might be an independent variable.
A variable in an equation that may have its value freely chosen without considering values of any other variable. For equations such as y = 3x â 2, the independent variable is x. The variable y is not independent since it depends on the number chosen for x. Formally, an independent variable is a variable which can be assigned any permissible value without any restriction imposed by any other variable. See also.