United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to become the first Arab state to send a probe on another planet with its Mars probe launch on July 15.
UAE’s is set to launch its first Mars probe named ‘Hope’ or ‘Al Amal’ in Arabic, making it the first Arab country to explore another planet.
To mark 50th anniversary of its unification/amalgamation of several sheikhdoms into ‘UAE’, the launch is scheduled on July 15 from Tanegashima Space Centre, Japan.
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The probe is expected to enter Mars’ orbit in 2021, enabling the inclusion of UAE into an elite club of few countries such as Russia, USA, India European Space Agency who have executed successful Mars missions.
The ‘Hope’ mission
UAE’s Mars probe will have the following objectives:
Integrate with the global Mars science community on key questions that no other mission has addressed
• Study why Mars is losing its upper atmosphere to space by tracking the behaviour and escape of hydrogen and oxygen, the building blocks of water
• Investigate the connection between the lower and upper levels of the Martian atmosphere
• Create the first global picture of how the Martian atmosphere changes through the day and between seasons
• Observe weather phenomena, such as dust storms, changes in temperature, and how the atmosphere interacts with the topography
• Reveal the causes of Martian surface corrosion
• Search for connections between today’s weather and the ancient climate of the red planet
