Mars Stones in Perseverance Mission Using Navajo Language

Suara.com – NASA named the rock on Mars which is now the scientific focus of explorers Perseverance, using the Navajo Indian language.

The rock is called Máaz which means “Mars” in the Navajo language. The explorer team is working with the Office of the President and Vice President of the Navajo to name the features of scientific interest with words in the language.

NASA scientists worked with Navajo team member Aaron Yazzie, engineer for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to seek Navajo Nation permission and collaboration in naming this scientific feature.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, Vice President Myron Lizer, and advisers then list the Navajo language words the Perseverance mission team can use.

According to Newz, the partnership the Nez-Lizer Administration has built with NASA will help revitalize our Navajo language.

“We hope that the language we use in the Perseverance mission will inspire more and more Navajo young people to understand the importance of learning our language,” said Nez.

By giving a name to a locally well-known region on Mars, it would be easier for mission team members to refer to features such as the rocks and soil.

Although the planet feature has an official name given to it by the International Astronomical Union, this informal name is used by the team at NASA.

The Navajo Nation team provides a list of 50 words the Perseverance team can use and they will work together to provide more words, as the rover robot explores more features on Mars.

The list includes names such as Máaz and tséwózí bee hazhmeezh meaning “rolling line of gravel” and bidziil meaning “strength”.

The Navajos even include the Navajo words for Perseverance which translate to Ha’ahóni.

When Perseverance landed on Mars on March 18, the team mapped the lattice at Jezero Crater into four sections, each measuring about 1.5 square kilometers.

Reporting from Space.com, Tuesday (16/3/2021), the place of the square where Perseverance landed has been named Canyon de Chelly Arizona National Monument or Tséyi in Navajo language, which is the heart of the Navajo Nation.

Explorers will now perform searches for signs of life.

This mission also includes characterizing the geology of the planet and past climates and is the first mission to collect and store Martian rock and regolith (rock fragments and dust).

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s lunar exploration approach to Mars, which includes an Artemis mission to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

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