BeautifulMars Comes to Hungary
BeautifulMars Comes to Hungary

HiRISE has added Hungarian (Magyar) in our ongoing linguistic invasion of Mars, with a new Tumblr, dedicated Twitter feed (@HiRISEHungary), and version of the HiRISE site. These are the first and only resources from an active NASA mission in the Hungarian language, and we could not accomplish this without the invaluable help of our volunteers.

We highlight five of our volunteers are who are high school students at the Széchenyi István Katolikus Közgazdasági Szakközépiskola, Ózd, Hungary. Their take on why they wanted to join The BeautifulMars Project:

Bence Szaka

Bence Szaka: “I think it is a great chance to develop my English skills. Helping NASA and the HiRISE program is an honor for us. I hope we can make a good relationship through this volunteer work because my dream is to become an engineer and work for NASA.”






Dóra Kiss

Dóra Kiss: “I'm very excited to be a part of this project and it is also a great feeling that through my English knowledge Hungarian readers can get interesting information about the Red Planet in our native language. Being the transmitter between the NASA and the Hungarian science and astronomy lovers is a big honor to me.”





István Kaiser

István Kaiser “I am really proud to be a part of this great project NASA created. I have been interested in the space and the stars since I was born. I could never imagine that I would be part of something big like this and it makes me happy that I can help in making these discoveries more accessible and understandable for my country.”





Martin Csépányi

Martin Csépányi : “I volunteered because I didn’t want to miss the unbelievable opportunity to work for NASA. Seeing posts translated by me on a NASA page is such an honor. The participation in the Project is not an everyday thing in my life. I’m proud of being a part of it.”





Viktória Rási

Viktória Rási: “I wanted to be a part of this project because I’m very interested in the plans of NASA. I have been watching the Astronomy Pictures of the day since my childhood and I think HiRISE will help a lot of people like me who just want to know more about the world around us. And who knows? Maybe Mars will give us the answers that we’re looking for.”





Vivien Tamás
Vivien Tamás: “I’m a 19-year-old student in my final year in high school. I feel so excited to be a part of the NASA project that brings knowledge about Mars to those Hungarians who don’t have any English skills. Actually I have nothing to do with science but hopefully next year I will study English and German at university and it is a great opportunity given to us to develop our skills in translation. Last but not least, I am so proud to be a contributor to the NASA program in Hungary.”


Other high school volunteers: Dániel Fehér, Gergő Harsányi, Zétény Kupás, József Magyar, Márk Kolarovszki, Tamás Obbágy, Hunor Fábián, Roland Mudriczki, Bence Birki. They range from the 9th to 13th grades, and their instructors are: Gabriella Lukács, László Arany and Gábor Puchreiner.


ADDITIONAL VOLUNTEERS

Henrik Hargitai Henrik Hargitai (Ph.D., 2007) is a planetary geomorphologist and media historian. He is a postdoctoral fellow at the NASA Ames Research Center. He taught planetary geomorphology, planetary cartography, typography, and media history as a senior lecturer at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary since 2002. He has a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences and Philosophy (Aesthetics). His study fields include planetary cartography, fluvial geomorphology, and the history and localization of planetary nomenclature. He participated in two Mars Desert Research Station simulations. He is chair of the ICA Commission on Planetary Cartography. He is the producer of numerous public outreach programs in planetary science for the radio and a member of the BeautifulMars Project.



Jessica Storey-Nagy Jessica Storey-Nagy: I grew up in Denver, Colorado with one of the first images of Mars taken by Mars Global Surveyor scotch-taped to my bedroom wall. My father worked for the then Martin Marietta Materials, and played a large part in building the MGS and MRO, or Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Now, I live in Bloomington, Indiana with my husband and am working on attaining a Ph.D. in Central and Eastern European Area Studies from Indiana University. I am thrilled that my recently acquired knowledge of Hungarian can contribute to a project like HiRISE, which has the potential to bring high quality pictures of Mars to the general public worldwide. Even though I have never personally worked on a spacecraft, I feel that NASA has inspired me through its display of perseverance and curiosity, and in its determination to solve every problem, no matter how big or small. I hope that through the BeautifulMars Project, this spirit of endurance and wonder will inspire a young girl or boy in Hungary to do great things someday. After all, these pictures are much nicer than the one that was scotch-taped to my wall!


Reporter Zsolt Lendvai, of Ózdi Városi Televízió, produced this profile about the Project and our volunteers that you can view here. (Hungarian with English subtitles.)



The purpose of the BeautifulMars Project is to reach those people, especially children, who want to know about Mars but don’t have strong skills in English. Since we call HiRISE “the people’s camera,” our project is a perfect way to bring planetary science to people all over the world in their own language. More importantly, we always seek to improve on what we have, so if you see something that can be worded better, let us know! Communicating with people is what the Project is all about.

If you’re interested in volunteering for HiRISE Hungarian, please contact the BeautifulMars Project.



About HiRISE
The HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the most powerful one of its kind ever sent to another planet. Its high resolution allows us to see Mars like never before, and helps other missions choose a safe spot to land for future exploration.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and is operated by the University of Arizona.