DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates would swing into orbit around Mars on Tuesday during the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission, the first of three robotic explorers to arrive on the red planet in the coming week and a half.
The orbiter, called Amal, Arabic for Hope, traveled 300 million miles in nearly seven months to get to Mars with the aim of mapping the atmosphere during each season.
A combination of orbiter and lander from China is a short distance away, scheduled to reach the planet on Wednesday. It will circle Mars until the rover separates and tries to land on the surface in May to look for signs of old life.
A US rover named Perseverance will join the crowd next week, aiming to land on Feb. 18. It will be the first leg in a decade-long US-European project to return Mars rocks to Earth for research. evidence that the planet once had microscopic life.
About 60% of all Mars missions have ended in failure, crash, combustion, or otherwise falling short in evidence of the complexity of interplanetary travel and the difficulty of descending through Mars’ thin atmosphere.
If this succeeds, China will only become the second country to land successfully on Mars. The US has done it eight times, the first nearly 45 years ago. A NASA rover and lander are still working on the surface.
For the UAE, it was the country’s first venture outside Earth’s orbit, making the flight a matter of intense national pride.
For days, landmarks in the UAE, including Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower on Earth, glowed red to mark Amal’s expected arrival. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the country’s founding, bringing Amal even more attention.
The celestial weather station was aiming for an exceptionally high orbit of Mars of 13,670 miles by 27,340 miles (22,000 kilometers by 44,000 kilometers). It would join six spacecraft already operating around Mars: three American, two European, and one Indian.
Amal was expected to perform an intricate series of high-stakes turns and engine firings to maneuver into orbit and accomplish what had eluded so much earlier.
“If something goes wrong, you lose the spacecraft,” said Sarah al-Amiri, Secretary of State for Advanced Technology and Chairman of the UAE Space Agency.
A success would be a huge boost to the UAE’s space ambitions. The country’s first astronaut shot into space in 2019 and hitchhiked the Russians to the International Space Station. That’s 58 years after the Soviet Union and the US launched astronauts.
In developing Amal, the UAE chose to work with more experienced partners rather than going alone or buying the spacecraft elsewhere. The engineers and scientists worked with researchers from the University of Colorado, the University of California at Berkeley and Arizona State University.
The spacecraft was assembled in Boulder, Colorado, before being sent to Japan for launch last July.
All three spacecraft bound for the red planet lifted up within days of each other, taking advantage of the close alignment of Earth and Mars – thus their short arrival times.
The Amal-sized car cost $ 200 million to build and launch; that does not include operating costs on Mars. The Chinese and American expeditions are considerably more complicated – and more expensive – because of their robbers. NASA’s persistence mission totals $ 3 billion.
The UAE, a federation of seven Skeikhdoms, is looking for Amal to spark the imaginations of the country’s scientists and youth and prepare for a future when the oil runs out.
“This mission was never about reaching Mars,” said Omran Sharaf, Amal’s project manager. “Mars is just a means to a much greater end.”
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Associated Press writer Malak Harb contributed to this report.