Of the three new Mars missions planned for this year, the Hope probe, from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), will be the first to reach the red planet. Placed in a high elliptical orbit, the probe will aim to focus on studying its atmosphere.
Three countries took advantage of an open launch window to Mars this summer:the United States (Mars 2020 mission), China (Tianwen-1 mission), and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with their Hope mission. This is what interests us today. The Arab ship will be the first to open the ball, with an insertion into Mars orbit scheduled for this Tuesday, February 9.
Emirati officials estimate a 50-50 chance of success for this very complex maneuver, during which the ship will have to slow down sufficiently (from 121,000 km/h to about 18 000 km/h) to be captured by Martian gravity. The operation, which will begin this Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. (French time), should last a little less than half an hour.
If successful, the Gulf State will become the fifth nation to reach Mars after NASA, Russia, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Indian Space Research Organization. A remarkable arrival which falls the same year as the 50th anniversary of the formation of the country.
For the occasion, the monuments of the United Arab Emirates have recently been lit up in red at night. This Tuesday, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world, will also be the center of a celebratory spectacle.
Placed at an altitude of around 40,000 km, the Hope probe will aim to probe the Martian atmosphere and climate for at least one Martian year, or 687 days. It is expected to begin transmitting information to Earth in September 2021.
“This project carries the hopes and ambitions of our nation, and more generally the aspirations of Arab and Islamic peoples for a better future” , said Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the UAE, a few months ago.
For Omran Sharaf, the mission leader, this project also aims to inspire the hundred million young people in the Arab world, "showing them a future beyond beyond oil “, which will not be able to carry the economy of the country forever. “Failure [on Mars] is an option” , he added. “But the failure of progress is not” .
Finally, let's remember that the Chinese mission Tianwen-1 must enter Mars orbit the next day, February 10, before attempting a landing in May. If successful, China will be only the second country to land a craft gently on the red planet. For its part, the American rover Perseverance must land in the Jezero crater on February 18.
