The UAE Successfully Launches a Satellites to Mars
Dubai, MINA – The United Arab Emirates on Sunday, July 19 successfully launched the Hope Probe Satellite that will orbit on Mars, marking the first interplanetary mission in the Arab world and the first of three international missions to the Red Planet this summer.
Hope Probe took off from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan, after experiencing a delay last week due to bad weather. The solid rocket booster was successfully separated from the launch vehicle, and the investigation has established two-way communication with the land segment in Dubai, CNN reported.
Sarah Al Amiri, the Mission Leader said the launch of Hope aims to build the first full picture of the climate of Mars throughout the year.
“Studying the Martian weather system, including changes in the atmosphere and climate, can help lead to an understanding of how Mars, a planet that used to have characteristics similar to Earth’s, then went from having rivers and lakes to having no water on its surface,” Al Amiri said.
He explained to unite the puzzle, the investigation would aim to take various measurements, making it possible to explore various theories.
Al Amiri also said the team was particularly interested in the possible link between dust storms and the loss of hydrogen and oxygen, water building blocks from the Martian atmosphere.
The Al Amal Probe, as mentioned in Arabic, is expected to reach Mars in February 2021. This will be the first time the UAE has orbited Mars, and the probe will remain in orbit for one year, equivalent to 687 days on Earth to collect data about the Martian atmosphere.
“Data collected by the investigation will add a new dimension to human knowledge,” Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said on Twitter.
“This is our latest contribution to the world,” he said.
“It is an honor to be part of a global effort to explore deep space,” Hope Mars Mission’s official account statement via Twitter, after launch.
“The Hope Probe is the culmination of every step taken by humans throughout history to explore the unknown depths of space,” Add the statement.
The United States and China also embarked on Mars missions this summer. NASA and Tianwen 1 from China are expected to be launched between late July and early August, although the exact date depends on daily launch conditions.
All three countries have launched this summer because of the biennial window when Earth and Mars are close together, making travel a little shorter.
NASA through its Twitter account congratulates on the successful launch of Hope.
Probe Hope itself is the latest and most ambitious move by the UAE in the developing space sector.
Previously, the UAE had also launched satellites in 2009 and 2013 but was developed with South Korean partners. The country established a space agency in 2014, and has set ambitious targets including colonies on the surface of Mars in 2117.
The achievement of the UAE is considered an impressive achievement for the Gulf state. Normally, most Mars missions take between 10 and 12 years to develop but UAE scientists only need six years to carry out the project.
To build a spacecraft, they partnered with a team in the US, at Boulder’s University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. And to find new scientific goals for the Hope mission, they consulted the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), a forum created by NASA to plan Mars exploration. (T/R7/RE1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
