NASA Uses Perseverance Mars Rover Mission to Honor Navajo Language

Canyon de Chelly Nationwide Monument (“Tséyi’” in Navajo) in Arizona is situated on Navajo Nation land. (Photograph: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Due to the fact its landing on the surface area of Mars in mid-February, NASA’s Perseverance rover has been diligently documenting every depth and sending a lot more than 7,000 images back again to Earth. A frequent activity undertaken by surface area missions is to assign nicknames to the many landmarks found out by the rover this offers the mission group with a frequent vocabulary with which to explore their findings. The crew for the Mars 2020 mission is working in conjunction with the Navajo Nation to identify the different capabilities and geological landmarks uncovered on the Pink Planet’s surface with words and phrases from the Navajo language.

Ahead of the Perseverance rover launch, the crew divided Jezero Crater—the landing web-site of the rover—into several quads, each and every about just one square mile in sizing. Every single place is named following nationwide parks and other sites on Earth with very similar geological attributes. The spot exactly where Perseverance first touched down was in a quad named right after Arizona’s Canyon de Chelly National Monument—called Tséyi’ in Navajo—which lies in the heart of the Navajo Country.

Doing the job with a Navajo engineer named Aaron Yazzie on the Perseverance crew, the mission was able to obtain the Navajo Nation’s permission to collaborate. Compiling a checklist of above 50 Navajo terms to start off with, they will carry on to function with the Navajo Country as the rover explores much more of the planet’s floor. The present record incorporates text like tsé łichíí, that means purple rock hahóóts’aa’, which signifies crater séítah, which translates to amongst the sand and yéigo, the Navajo term for diligence. The first concentrate of the mission is a rock found by the rover, which they subsequently named Máaz—the Navajo phrase for Mars.

“The partnership that the Nez-Lizer Administration has developed with NASA will aid to revitalize our Navajo language,” suggests Navajo Country President Jonathan Nez. “We hope that possessing our language utilised in the Perseverance mission will inspire extra of our younger Navajo people today to recognize the value and the significance of finding out our language. Our text had been utilized to assistance acquire Planet War II, and now we are aiding to navigate and study more about the world Mars.”

To maintain up with the Perseverance Mars Rover, follow the mission on Fb and Twitter. Take a look at NASA’s web site for a lot more in-depth details about the Mars 2020 mission.

NASA is operating in conjunction with the Navajo Nation to identify features found out on Mars (by the Perseverance rover) in the Navajo language.

This rock, known as “Máaz” (the Navajo word for “Mars”), is the first element of scientific desire to be researched by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. (Photograph: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Combining two pictures, this mosaic reveals a close-up perspective of the rock focus on named Yéigo, or “Yeehgo,” from the SuperCam instrument on NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS/ASU/MSSS)

Combining two images, this mosaic shows a near-up see of the rock concentrate on named Yéigo, or “Yeehgo,” from the SuperCam instrument on NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS/ASU/MSSS)

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h/t: [CBS News]

All visuals by means of NASA.

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