The first Arab space mission, the UAE probe from the UAE, 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 year, taking advantage of a period in which Earth and Mars are closest.
If successful, the prosperous Gulf state will become the fifth nation Mars has ever reached – a venture planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the UAE association – with the mission in China, the next day the sixth will be.
Landmarks across the UAE are lit up in red at night, government bills with the #ArabstoMars hashtag, and on the big day, Burj Khalifa, Dubai, the tallest tower in the world, will be in the middle of a festival show.
Hope, known in Arabic as “Al-Amal”, will orbit the planet for at least one Martian year, or 687 days, while the Tianwen-1 from China and the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover from the USA will both land on Mars’ surface. . .
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 was shot down in Japan last year, Emirates officials now stand according to its officials as ‘most critical and complex’ with a 50 to 50 chance of successfully entering a Mars orbit.
The spacecraft has to slow down significantly to be captured by the gravity of Mars, and all six Delta V thrusters rotate and shoot for 27 minutes to reduce the cruising speed from 121,000 kilometers per hour to about 18,000 km / h (11,200 km / h h)).
The process, which will consume half of its fuel, will begin on Tuesday, February 9 at 15:30 GMT (15:30 UTC) and it will take 11 minutes to get a signal on the progress of land control.
Omran Sharaf, the project manager of the UAE mission, 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 a favorable and capable company as we all undertake our missions,” he said. “It was never a race for us. We approach space as a collaborative and inclusive effort.”
Although the Hope probe is designed to provide a comprehensive picture of the weather dynamics of the planet, it is also a step towards a much more ambitious goal – to build a human settlement on Mars within 100 years. .
While the United Arab Emirates reaffirms its status as a key regional player, it also wants the project to be a source of inspiration for Arab youth, in a region too often plagued by sectarian conflicts and economic crises.
Hope will use three scientific tools to monitor the Martian atmosphere, and is expected to begin transmitting information to Earth in September 2021, using the data available to scientists around the world.
Close at the back
China’s Tianwen-1, or ‘Questions to Heaven’, has already returned its first image of Mars – a black-and-white photograph showing geological features, including the Schiaparelli Crater and the Valles Marineris, a large piece gorges on Mars. surface.
The five-ton Tianwen-1 contains a Mars orbit, a lander and a solar-powered rover that will study the earth and atmosphere of the planet, take photos, map maps and signs of past life for three months. will search.
China hopes to land the 240-kilogram (529-pound) rover in Utopia in May, a massive receptacle on Mars. The orbit will last for a Mars 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 photo of Mars. (China National Space Administration / AFP)
NASA’s perseverance, which will hit the Red Planet on February 18, becomes the fifth traveler to complete the journey since 1997 – and all have been American so far.
It is on an astrobiological mission to search for signs of ancient microbial life and will attempt for the first time to fly a 1.8 kilogram helicopter drone to another world.
Perseverance, which can automatically navigate 200 meters (650 feet) per day, will collect rock samples that can be invaluable in knowing if there has ever been previous life on Mars.
Approximately the size of a small SUV, it weighs a ton, has 19 cameras and two microphones – which scientists hope will be the first to record sound on Mars.
The mission will last at least two years.
© Agence France-Press