The United Arab Emirates’ first mission to Mars entered the orbit of the red planet, seven months after the Emirati-built ‘Hope Probe’ was launched from Tanegashima in Japan.
UAE has become the fifth country after the US, Russia, China, the EU, and India, to reach the Martian orbit.
What is the UAE’s Hope Probe?
Emirates Mars Mission was developed and operated by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in collaboration with the University California, Berkeley, Arizona State University and the University of Colorado-Boulder in the United States.
It was launched from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan aboard a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ H-II A rocket and its launch became the 45th for H-II A.
Carrying three instruments, including a high-resolution camera and a spectrometer, the spacecraft is on an orbital mission to collect data on Martian climate dynamics and help scientists understand why Mars’s atmosphere is decaying into space.
Hope is the UAE’s fourth space mission and first interplanetary one.
What is the objective of the mission?
The primary objective of the mission is to study Martian weather dynamics.
By correlating the lower atmosphere and upper atmosphere conditions, the probe will look into how weather changes the escape of hydrogen and oxygen into space.
By measuring how much hydrogen and oxygen is spilling into space, scientists will be able to look into why Mars lost so much of its early atmosphere and liquid water.
Over the next two months, the spacecraft will continue to move into its final orbital position — around 20,000-43,000 kilometres about the planet.
It is expected to create the first complete portrait of the planet’s atmosphere.
With the information gathered during the mission, scientists will have a better understanding of the climate dynamics of different layers of Mars’ atmosphere.
How did the Hope Probe swing into orbit around Mars?
In order to be captured by Mars’ gravity, the spacecraft had to pull off an intricate braking manoeuvre known as the Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) to slow down its speed considerably.
It was approaching the planet at over 120,000km/h (relative to the Sun) and had to execute a 27-minute burn on its braking engines so that it could avoid the risk of missing its orbit or getting lost in deep space.
The manoeuvre was performed by the craft’s six Delta V Thrusters in the required time frame, however, the ground controllers on Earth received the confirmation only 11 minutes later.
The delay was caused due to the time it took for the radio signals to cover the 190-million-km distance between Earth and Mars.