The Hope Probe: UAE’s Ambitious Space Project to Study Mars
Image Source: emiratesmarsmission.ae
The United Arab Emirates is eagerly awaiting the entry of its probe into the Martian orbit in February 2021. This historic first mission is underway after the Hope probe was launched on an H2-A rocket from Tanegashima spaceport in Japan. The Hope probe is on a 500 million kilometres journey to study the planet’s weather and climatic conditions.
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The Emirates Mars mission “Hope Probe” will be one of the first-ever space probes that will provide a complete picture of the complex Martian atmosphere and its layers in detail. This probe can help scientists to answer key questions about the Martian atmosphere and the loss of hydrogen and Oxygen gases into space during the span of one Martian year. Hope’s arrival in the orbit of Mars in February 2021 is set to coincide with the 50th anniversary of UAE’s formation. UAE is rapidly growing in all fields including science and technology. It boasts of several great achievements like having the tallest tower in the world “The Burj Khalifa” in Dubai. The young people in the UAE are very active and love to explore more about the world. They also love the latest fashion trends and sometimes even prefer to get their stuff online, since online shopping in UAE is quite popular among the young crowd. But at the same time, they also have some of the best Malls in the world providing a grand mix of extraordinary entertainment and shopping.
Why are Humans So Eager to Explore Mars? The red planet mars has been capturing human imagination and interest for several centuries. It’s mysterious colour and possibility to sustain
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life make it the only favourable planetary destination for humans in the present times.
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We do know a great deal about this planet, but still, there is a lot more to study and explore. Does Mars have any water? Is the main question on the minds of most people, since water is essential to sustain life on the planet. Man’s pursuit to find extraterrestrial life and to expand the human civilizations to other planets is also a reason for humans to explore Mars.
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Exploring Mars also gives humans a chance to find solutions to make life better on earth. Lots of technologies developed for space work have immensely helped us to adapt it for other uses on earth. Especially in areas of water conservation, recycling waste and better ways to grow plants in harsh weather conditions. Elon Musk is a world-renowned businessman who has created the SpaceX company to carry humans to Mars in the near future.
The UAE’s Historic First Mission to Explore Mars After a successful lift-off in Japan, the United Arab Emirates probe to Mars is closing in on the red planet. The Hope probe was launched on an H2-A rocket from the Tanegashima spaceport in Japan. This probe needs to undergo a 500 million Kilometers journey to reach the red planet. It was launched in July 2020 after two previous attempts were called off due to adverse weather conditions.
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Image Source: nasaspaceflight.com
The science lead for this project; her excellency Sarah Al Amiri was excited to see the rocket climb into the sky successfully. She told BBC that “This was an anchor for an entire generation that watched it to push further and dream bigger.” She was glad that the children in the Emirates will wake up to the new dawn ready to face new realities and explore new possibilities to create a larger impact on the world.
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Along with the UAE’s probe, there are two other probes with surface rovers headed to Mars from the US and China. The American mission, Perseverance had sent its congratulations to Hope and mentioned that it cannot wait to join the Hope probe on its illustrious journey.
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The Main Objectives of the Hope Probe Mission to Mars 1. To Understand the climate dynamics by characterizing weather events in the lower atmosphere. To study and analyse daily and seasonal weather cycles. 2. Explain how the weather changes influence the escape of Hydrogen and Oxygen into space by correlating the lower atmosphere and upper atmosphere conditions. 3. To understand the structure and the variability of Hydrogen and Oxygen in the upper atmosphere, as well as to study the possible reason behind the drastic climate changes.
Why Did the UAE Plan to Go to Mars? In Spite of UAE having only limited experience in designing and launching spacecraft; yet they have tried to attempt the impossible which only a few nations have done successfully. It is the Emiratis pure ambition and drive to achieve the impossible and take on this challenge.
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The UAE engineers were mentored by the American experts to create a highly sophisticated probe in just six years. It will help scientists to understand how Mars had lost much of its air and a great deal of its water. Apart from studying the red planet, it is touted to be a vehicle of inspiration that will attract more young people in the Emirates to take up science subjects in school and higher education.
Image Source: emiratesmarsmission.ae
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The UAE government told the project team to build and design the spacecraft in partnership with international universities and corporations. They could not just purchase the spacecraft but needed to build it with their team. Scientists from the USA and Emirates worked together to design and build the spacecraft systems with three onboard instruments to study the red planet. On December 2, 1971, the first probe to Mars “The Mars 3” probe landed successfully on the red planet and began signalling from there heralding a new era in the quest for space exploration. It was also the UAE’s first independence day. Almost 50 years later after the birth of this Arab nation; the first Emirati spaceship will enter into Mars orbit and create history for this Arab nation. It will be a proud moment after seven years of hard work and impeccable planning.The name of the craft - Al-Amal is actually the Arabic word for Hope. The head of the UAE Mars mission Omran Sharaf stated that Hope means the pride of the nation and its people.
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It also ties with the future vision of the UAE. It also signifies people putting differences aside regardless of beliefs, religions and ethnic groups and work together as citizens of Earth.
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The Hope Probe is on a two-year mission to unravel the climatic conditions of Mars and help humans to gear up for future travel and settlement on the red planet. It is a UAE Space Agency (UAESA) uncrewed space exploration mission to Mars that was launched on 19th July 2020 at 21:58:14 UTC.
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The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) led the mission design, development and operations for this project. The Hope Probe spacecraft was developed by MBRSC and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado, Boulder along with support from Arizona State University (ASU) and the University of California, Berkeley. The assembling was done at the University of Colorado.
Conclusion The Hope probe was successfully launched by a Japanese H-IIA rocket that was built and operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in July 2020. The journey would take seven months to arrive at Mars. An agreement was signed between UAESA and MBRSC under the direction given by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President, Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai. UAESA will fund the Emirates Mars mission and it will also supervise the complete execution of the project. According to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the name Hope was chosen because it will send a message of optimism to millions of young Arabs. They also plan to share the mission data freely with more than 200 institutions worldwide to further enhance the study of Mars and get mankind closer to the red planet.
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