The National Trust for Scotland has made a light-hearted call to NASA to recognise its members at a new site with Scottish heritage after a Mars mission scientist named a place on the Red Planet after a Scots island archipelago.
The Scottish conservation charity has written to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration politely requesting free right of entry to sites on Mars whose names have drawn inspiration from some of the most remote parts of Scotland.
Above: Blue planet - St Kilda. Image: NTS
It comes after NASA Mars Mission and Tennessee University Professor Linda Kah, who has family ties to Scotland, named a site on Mars after St Kilda, the remote site which the NTS manages and maintains on Earth.
Shortly after the Scots island archipelago was evacuated in 1930, Prof Kah's grandfather suggested that his family move to St Kilda, although they never did.
Susan Bain, Western Isles area manager for the trust, wrote to NASA: "We write to you with a question of significant gravity: will our members also have right of free entry, with parking, to St Kilda and Torridon on Mars?”
Above: Red Planet - also home to St Kilda. Image: NASA
She added: “This story demonstrates the incredible stories behind the Scottish diaspora and just how far the connections to St Kilda stretch its legend is conquering other worlds.”
The space agency’s rover Curiosity is currently exploring “targets” – rocks, pebbles, shapes, and colours – of interest to scientists on the Red Planet.
Part of the Torridon quadrangle, which is also named after a location in Scotland, one of these targets coming into focus is St Kilda.
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