The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is about to make aerospace history by joining Mars for the very first time. The objective of this mission, called Hope, will be to characterize the very dynamic weather system of the red planet.
This Tuesday, February 9, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Space Agency aims to successfully orbit its first interplanetary mission around Mars. The probe, launched in July 2020 aboard a Japanese rocket, will spend a Martian year (687 Earth days) studying the mysterious atmosphere of the red planet.
In a recent interview with Space.com, Sarah Al Amiri, President of the United Arab Emirates Space Agency, discussed the challenges of this mission, which aims to enrich our scientific knowledge of the planet Mars.
Hope will be the very first Martian weather satellite in high elliptical orbit. Its altitude will be between 20,000 and 43,000 kilometers. In this way, the UAE will be able to characterize the global weather system of the planet throughout the day . Meteorological probes have already operated on the spot. However, until now, these missions could only survey at two times of the day and over certain areas only.
By spending about a year in orbit around Mars, the UAE will also give itself the means to study the evolution of the Martian climate according to the seasons . "Knowing that the Martian weather system is dynamic, just like Earth's, it is very important for us to better understand and study global dust storm systems, clouds, water vapor, just to name a few of the constituents we observe “, explains Sarah Al Amiri.
Another objective of this mission will be to characterize how far hydrogen and oxygen extend into space from Mars . “Atmospheric loss due to space factors or the Sun has been studied by other missions. What we want to do is fill the knowledge gap on the role of the Mars weather system in atmospheric loss “, she continues. “If there is a localized dust storm for example, we would like to know its impact on the escape of hydrogen and oxygen from the upper atmosphere. And if there is indeed an impact, determine the various processes underway “.
Thus the objectives of this expected mission will be to complete our knowledge of the Martian weather system , taking a little more height compared to the other missions.
Sarah Al Amiri also returned to the very complex orbital insertion maneuver which must take place this Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. (French time).
"That would be the hardest time. We must regularly turn on our thrusters for 27 minutes ". The goal is indeed to slow down enough, from 121,000 km/h to around 18,000 km/h, to be captured by Martian gravity. "We've never done this before. This is a brand new design for a spaceship ". More than seven years of work were needed to develop these thrusters. "Seven years to ensure that these 27 minutes of significant reduction in the speed of the probe to be operated meticulously “.
If successful, the Gulf State will thus become the fifth entity to reach the planet Mars after NASA, Russia, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Indian Space Research Organization.
