Before launch, the Perseverance team divided the Jezero Crater landing site into a grid of quadrilaterals, or ‘quads,’ measuring about 1 square mile (1.5 square kilometers) in size. The team decided to name these quads after national parks and reserves on Earth with a similar geology. Perseverance hit the quad bike named after Arizona’s Canyon de Chelly National Monument (Tséyi ‘in Navajo), in the heart of the Navajo nation. The team’s plan was to compile a list of names inspired by each quad’s national park that could be used to name features perceived by Perseverance. Mission scientists worked with a Navajo (or Diné) engineer on the team, Aaron Yazzie of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, to request the Navajo Nation’s permission and cooperation in naming new positions on Mars.
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, Vice President Myron Lizer, and their advisers made a list of words in the Navajo language available to the rover’s team. Some terms are inspired by the terrain depicted on the landing site by Volharding. One suggestion was, for example, ‘tséwózí bee hazhmeezh’ or ‘rolling rows of pebbles, like waves’. Yazzie added suggestions such as “strength” (“bidziil”) and “respect” (“hoł nilį”) to the list. Perseverance itself was translated to “Ha’ahóni.”
“The partnership that the Nez-Lizer administration has built with NASA will help revitalize our Navajo language,” said Jonathan Nez, president of Navajo Nation. “We hope that using our language in the Perseverance mission will inspire more of our young Navajo people to understand the importance and meaning of learning our language. Our words were used to help win World War II, and now we help navigate and learn more about the planet Mars. “
The Perseverance team has a list of 50 names to begin with. The team will work with the Navajo Nation on more names in the future as the rover continues to explore.
“This fateful landing on Mars has created a special opportunity to inspire Navajo youth, not only through amazing scientific and engineering feats, but also through the incorporation of our language in such a meaningful way,” said Yazzie.
However, for Perseverance to recognize landmarks labeled in Navajo, it must be ‘taught’ the language. The accent marks used in the English alphabet to convey the unique intonation of the Navajo language cannot be read by the computer languages that Perseverance uses. Yazzie noted that while they are working hard to come up with translations that best match Navajo spelling, the team will use English letters with no special characters or punctuation to represent Navajo words.
“We are very proud of one of our own, Aaron Yazzie, who plays a pivotal role in NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Mission,” said President Nez. “We are excited for the NASA team and for Aaron and we see him as a great role model who will spark more interest in the STEM fields of study and hopefully inspire more of our young people to pursue STEM careers for even greater impact. and contribute just like Aaron does. As the mission continues, we offer our prayers for continued success. “
Scientists on the team have taken the opportunity to learn Navajo words and their meanings, said JPL’s Perseverance Deputy Project Scientist Katie Stack Morgan. “This collaboration encourages the rover’s science team to think more about the names being considered for objects on Mars – what they mean both geologically and to humans on Earth,” said Stack Morgan.
More about the mission
A major goal of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s past geology and climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and store Martian rock and regolith (fractured rock and dust).
Subsequent NASA missions, in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, including Artemis missions to the moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is operated for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and operated the Perseverance rover.
For more on perseverance:
mars.nasa.gov/mars2020
nasa.gov/perseverance