The United Arab Emirates to Launch Its First Mars Mission With Hope Spacecraft

The United Arab Emirates plans to launch its first space mission today – sending a spacecraft called “Hope” to orbit Mars.

The United Arab Emirates plans to launch its first space mission today – sending a spacecraft called “Hope” to orbit Mars. 

Emirates Mars Mission aims to provide a global snapshot of the weather on the Red Planet. It is going to add pride to the UAE when in December 2021 it celebrates its 50th anniversary.

To ensure Hope is on Mars by the end of the year, the UAE should start this summer. Planetary scientists have a small window every two years to send spacecraft to Mars when the Red Planet and Earth are closely orbiting in their orbits. 

If Hope is launched in July, the spacecraft will travel to Mars for the next seven months, arriving occasionally in February – which will be plenty of time in orbit before the end of the year.

Hope launches a Japanese H-IIA rocket from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center, located on an island off the south coast of the country. In Tanegashima, the launchpad will take place on July 20 at 6:58 p.m. On the east coast of the United States, the launch will take place this afternoon at 5:58 PM ET.

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About an hour after launch, the H-IIA rocket launches the hope into space and heads for Mars. The study will stretch its solar panels and begin to generate power by pointing towards the sun. 

The Emirates Mars Mission team operating the spacecraft will also try to communicate with the vehicle, at the same time it will try to stabilize itself, and then go into deep space.

About 28 days after launch, Hope adjusts its trajectory by burning its internal impulses – the first of many correction manoeuvres on its way to Mars. Such burns are necessary to constantly monitor Hope to meet a small window on Mars, and then insert itself into the planet’s orbit. 

“This is a very small goal,” said Pete Withnell, project manager at the University of Colorado Boulder in partnership with the Emirates Mars Mission, during a press conference before the launch. “This is equivalent to an archer hitting a two-millimeter target at a distance of one kilometer. So this is not for the fainting of the heart. “

Emirates plans to provide several live streams of the Mars mission launch, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which operates the H-IIA rocket, will also provide a Livestream. 

Most streams start at 3 PM ET and provide ample protection leading to the first attempt by the UAE to place a vehicle in a deeper location.