On February 18, 2021, after six months in transit, the Perseverance rover landed in the Jezero crater on Mars. On March 4, the company began driving short distances and calibrating its instruments in preparation for any scientific operations it will perform. Most recently, Perseverance began investigating its first scientific target, a rock called “Máaz” – the Navajo word for “Mars”.
This feature is one of many objects of scientific interest in the Jezero crater that is given names from the Navajo language. The process is overseen by the Perseverance Mission Team in collaboration with the Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President. This is in line with NASA’s tradition of nicknames for features so that the mission team (which can number in the thousands) have a common name for them.
Recently, the Perseverance team named the rover’s landing site the “Octavia E. Butler Landing” in honor of the late and respected science fiction writer who died in 2006. Likewise, the Curiosity rover landing site at Gale Crater Bradbury Landing was named in honor of Ray Bradbury, the famous science fiction writer perhaps best known for writing The Martian Chronicles.
Chelly Canyon National Monument (Tséyi ‘in Navajo) in Arizona is located in the heart of the Navajo Nation. Photo credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
In this case, the decision is part of a larger effort that has divided the rover’s landing pad into four squares (or “quads”). Each quad is approximately 2.6 km2 and is named after a national park or nature reserve on earth with a similar geology. The quad bike that Perseverance landed in is named for Arizona’s Tséyi National Monument (Canyon de Chelly), located in the heart of the Navajo nation.
One of the engineers on the mission team is Aaron Yazzie from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who is himself a Navajo (or Diné). Via Yazzie, NASA in the south has given the Navajo Nation permission and collaboration to designate new functions on Mars. In response, Jonathan Nez and Myron Lizer (the President and Vice President, respectively, of the Navajo Nation) and their advisors compiled a list of words and made them available to the rover team.
For example, Perseverance’s name was translated to “Ha’anhóni” while words like bidziil (“strength”) and ho? Zero?? (“Respect”) were also highlighted as possible names for traits. Other terms were inspired by terrain already mapped by the rover, such as: B. tséwózí bee hazhmeezh, which translates as “rolling rows of pebbles like waves”. As the President of the Navajo Nation Jonathan Nez said in a NASA press release:
“The partnership that the Nez Lizer administration has established with NASA will help revitalize our Navajo language. We hope that using our language in the Perseverance Mission will inspire more young Navajo people to understand the meaning and importance of learning our language. Our words were used to win World War II and now we are helping you navigate and learn more about the planet Mars. “
After 5 years and 60 candidates, NASA has selected Jezero crater as the landing site for the Mars 2020 rover. Photo credit: NASA / JPL / JHUAPL / MSSS / Brown University
Currently the Perseverance team has a list of 50 names to start, but the team will continue to work with the Navajo Nation to include more names for functions if the rover continues to identify them. “This fateful landing on Mars created a special opportunity to inspire the Navajo youth not only through amazing scientific and technical feats, but also through such meaningful use of our language,” added Yazzle.
One of the biggest challenges was adapting the Navajo script so that Perseverance’s systems could recognize it. To convey the unique pronunciation of Navajo words, special accents are included (which the rover’s computer language does not recognize). For now, the team is avoiding complications by simply using English letters with no special accents or punctuation.
However, Yazzie also stated that the team will continue to work on ways to get the right intonations across. Said Nez:
“We are very proud of one of our own, Aaron Yazzie, who plays an important role in NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission. We are very excited about the NASA team and Aaron and see him as a great role model who will generate more interest in the STEM fields of study and hopefully inspire more young people to pursue STEM careers for even greater impact and contributions to achieve just like Aaron. As the mission goes on, we offer our prayers for continued success. “
Unlabeled image of the Maaz feature in the Jezero crater. Photo credit: NASA-JPL
Katie Stack Morgan, assistant project scientist for the PerseveranceI mission at JPL, added that scientists on the team took the opportunity to learn Navajo words and their meanings. “This partnership encourages the rover’s science team to ponder the names being considered for features on Mars – what they mean both geologically and to the people of Earth,” she said.
In the near future, the rover will run further tests to calibrate its advanced suite of instruments. This will be relied on when Perseverance examines Máaz’s composition and what it can say about the history of the Jezero crater. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will also conduct another experimental test flight to test its systems and capabilities.
The Kinds of Discoveries Persistence will allow scientists around the world to eagerly await the rovers’ scientific results!
Further reading: NASA
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