The first Arab space mission, the UAE’s “Hope” probe, is expected to reach Mars orbit on February 9, making it the first of three spacecraft to arrive on the Red Planet this month.
The United Arab Emirates, China, and the United States all launched projects to Mars last July, taking advantage of a period when Earth and Mars are closest.
If successful, the wealthy Gulf State will become the fifth nation to ever reach Mars – an undertaking timed to mark the 50th anniversary of the UAE’s unification – and the Chinese mission will become the sixth the following day.
UAE landmarks are lit up in red at night, government accounts adorned with the hashtag #ArabstoMars, and on the big day, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, will be the centerpiece of a celebratory show.
Hope, known as ‘Al-Amal’ in Arabic, will orbit the planet for at least one Mars year or 687 days, while China’s Tianwen-1 and the US’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will both land on the surface of Mars. .
Only the US, India, the former Soviet Union and the European Space Agency have successfully reached the Red Planet in the past.
Risky maneuver
After the Hope mission took off from Japan last July, Hope’s mission now faces its “most critical and complex” maneuver, according to Emirates officials, with a 50-50 chance of successfully entering Mars orbit .
The spacecraft must slow down significantly to be caught by Martian gravity, and all six of its Delta-V thrusters are spinning and firing for 27 minutes to reduce its cruising speed from 121,000 kilometers (about 75,000 miles) per hour to about 18,000 km / h. h (11,200 mph). ).
The process, which consumes half its fuel, will begin on Tuesday, February 9 at 15:30 GMT (15:30 UTC) and will take 11 minutes for a progress signal to reach ground control.
Omran Sharaf, the UAE mission’s project manager, said it was a “great honor” to be the first of this year’s missions to reach Mars.
“It is humble to be in such auspicious and capable company as we all embark on our missions,” he said. “It was never a race for us. We approach space as a collaborative and inclusive effort.”
While the Hope probe is designed to provide a comprehensive picture of the planet’s weather dynamics, it is also a step toward a much more ambitious goal: to build a human settlement on Mars within 100 years.
The UAE reaffirms its status as a major regional player, but also wants the project to serve as a source of inspiration for Arab youth in a region too often ravaged by sectarian conflict and economic crises.
Hope will use three scientific instruments to track Mars’ atmosphere and is expected to begin sending information back to Earth in September 2021, with the data available for scientists around the world to study.
Close behind
China’s Tianwen-1, or ‘Questions to Heaven’, has already sent back its first image of Mars – a black and white photo that showed geological features including the Schiaparelli Crater and Valles Marineris, a vast stretch of canyons on Mars. surface.
The five-ton Tianwen-1 includes a Mars orbiter, a lander and a solar-powered rover that will study the planet’s soil and atmosphere for three months, take photos, map and search. go to signs of past life.
China hopes to land the 240 kilograms (529 pounds) rover in Utopia, a massive impact basin on Mars, in May. Its orbit will last a Martian year.
Tianwen-1 is not China’s first attempt to reach Mars. A previous mission with Russia in 2011 ended prematurely when the launch failed.
Tianwen-1’s first image of Mars. (China National Space Administration / AFP)
NASA’s Perseverance, which will land on the Red Planet on Feb. 18, will be the fifth rover to complete the journey since 1997 – and they’ve all been American so far.
It is on an astrobiological mission to look for signs of ancient microbial life and will attempt to fly a 1.8 kilogram helicopter drone on another world for the first time.
Perseverance, capable of autonomously navigating 200 meters (650 feet) a day, will collect rock samples that can provide invaluable clues as to whether there ever was a past life on Mars.
About the size of a small SUV, it weighs a metric ton, has 19 cameras and two microphones – which scientists hope will be the first to record sound on Mars.
The mission lasts at least two years.
© Agence France-Presse