An Pláinéad Dearg as Gaeilge

Have you ever wondered about the mountains on Mars? The expansive seas? The huge craters, the canals or the volcanos? Many of us caught our first glimpse of the planet’s rugged terrain when we saw the first pictures transmitted courtesy of the Mars Pathfinder back in the late 1990s.

But thanks to the web not only can you explore the red planet from the comfort of your own home, you can do so while mobile and also in Irish.

Ireland's official language might have first gone into orbit last February when the ever-popular Cmdr Chris Hadfield tweeted his love for Ireland as Gaeilge from the International Space Station.

But thanks to the efforts of Nasa and a University of Arizona project, a planet even further away can now be viewed through the prism of Irish.

Shot from above and translated in part by Irish scientist and former director of the science department at DIT Prof Matt Hussey, the University of Arizona in conjunction with Nasa, has published high resolution photographs and videos of the second smallest planet in the Solar System.

The project allows instructors at all levels to present some of the most stunning images of Mars through Irish in any educational setting.

The Beautiful Mars Project makes high resolution images taken from the orbit of Mars available to Irish speakers across multiple platforms including a University of Arizona website (hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ga/), the microblogging website Tumblr (beautifulmars-irish.tumblr.com), a dedicated twitter feed (@HiRISEIrish) and a YouTube channel (youtube.com/UAHiRISEGaeilge) .

The images are taken from the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The orbiter, a US$720 million spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin under the supervision of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was launched in August 2005 and reached Martian orbit in March 2006.

The onboard camera is the most powerful one of its kind ever sent to another planet and is operated by the University of Arizona.

The camera can take pictures of the planet with resolutions of 0.3 m/pixel (ca 1 foot), and can detect objects less than a metre wide and, according to the university, will help other missions choose a safe spot to land for future exploration.

The tranlation by Prof Hussey features some 20 short essays and 150 captions and took two months to complete. The work was undertaken on a voluntary basis and today’s publication marks the first Nasa website to be published in Irish.

Prof Hussey was introduced to the project after being referred to Ari Espinoza of the HiRISE team by Canadian Capt Aralt Mac Giolla Chainnigh who visited Ireland in January with former astronaut Chris Hadfield.

“Scanning through the exquisite images, of unprecedented detail, you get a deep, inspiring feeling about our neighboring planet within the solar system. In its totality, the scheme is an extremely appealing, extremely interesting art form. It is great to have the opportunity to couple our ancient, yet modern, language with these images,” he said.

Prof Hussey’s scientific encyclopedia Fréamh an Eolais was published last year on vicipéid - the Irish edition of wikipedia. He is currently working on a history of science and the part Ireland played in it and also on a separate book on the history of ultrasound technology.

Other volunteers that participated in HiRISE Irish include Mary C. Bourke, Trinity College, Dublin; Aoife Crawford (TCD); Diarmuid Dwyer (TCD); Sean Ó Cionnfhaola (Dublin); Cearbhal Ó Síocháin (RTÉ Radió na Gaeltecha); Eomann Harvey, and Eoin Ó Droighneáin (Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge, Galway). Irish might have first gone into orbit last February when Cmdr Chris Hadfield tweeted his love for Ireland as Gaeilge from the International Space Station but thanks to the efforts of Nasa and a University of Arizona project, a planet even further away can now be viewed through the prism of the language of Ireland.