NASA names the rocks and soil of Mars in the Navajo language

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The Perseverance rover team, working with the Navajo Nation, named features of scientific interest with words in the language, according to NASA. And it includes a rock named “Máaz”, the Navajo word for “Mars”.
It is common for NASA missions to assign informal names to landmarks to provide mission members with a way to refer to various characteristics of interest. And Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer have made a list of words in the Navajo language available to the rover team, according to a NASA press release.

“We hope that the use of our language in the Perseverance mission will inspire more of our young Navajo to understand the importance and meaning of learning our language. Our words were used to help win WWII, and now we’re helping navigate. and learn more about the planet Mars, ”Nez said in the statement.

The team already has a list of 50 Navajo names, including “force” (“bidziil”) and “respect” (“hoł nilį́”). Perseverance itself has been translated into “Ha’ahóni”.

Perseverance had to be “taught” the language so that it could recognize landmarks that were labeled in Navajo, NASA said. The accent marks used in the English alphabet to convey the unique intonation of the Navajo language cannot be read by the computer languages ​​used by Perseverance. The team therefore uses English letters without special characters or punctuation to represent Navajo words, the statement said.

“This fateful landing on Mars created a special opportunity to inspire Navajo youth not only with incredible scientific and technical feats, but also by including our language in such a meaningful way,” said a Navajo engineer from the team, Aaron Yazzie of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

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