The UAE Hope probe is headed for Mars, marking the first planetary science mission led by an Arab country.
A launch on July 19 from Japan marked the start of the journey of the Hope satellite to Mars. But the project (called Al-Amal in Arabic, which translates to Hope in English) has been underway for six years, ever since UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced the project in July 2014. Hope will orbit the Red Planet, collecting data in its atmosphere to provide scientists with better information about the possible past of Mars and the drier present.
“We chose the epic challenge of reaching Mars because epic challenges inspire and motivate us,” Mohammed bin Rashid, the country’s vice president and prime minister, said in a 2014 statement, as the sister site of Live Science Space.com reported. “The time we stop taking on such challenges is the time we stop moving forward.”
For the UAE, the Hope project offers the opportunity to build a stronger scientific community, build national prestige, and contribute directly to the global effort to discover historical life on Mars, according to the Emirati space agency.
Related: UAE’s Hope mission to Mars in photos
What is the United Arab Emirates?
The UAE is a young nation with a population of less than 10 million (according to Global Media Insight) in the southeastern part of the Arabian peninsula, bordering Saudi Arabia and Oman, and across the Persian Gulf from Iran. That formed in 1971 of seven smaller nations, or emirates, which had hitherto been under British colonial rule. (Hope 2021’s arrival on Mars is slated to coincide with the UAE’s 50th anniversary.)
Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the largest emirates, make up the majority of the Emirati population, but about a third of all people in the UAE live in the other five emirates: Sharjah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, Fujairah and Umm al-Quwain.
The UAE is a rich oil producer And, like neighboring Saudi Arabia, it has long been an ally and trade partner of the United States. The country has plenty of money for important national projects such as The tallest building in the world in Dubai, artificial islands and a indoor ski resort in the middle of the desert
Hope has been part of a larger national project that has also seen the construction of the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center, which runs the Hope mission, the establishment of an astronaut program, and Emirati citizen Hazzaa Ali Almansoori. eight day period as an astronaut aboard the International Space Station in 2019.
What will the Hope probe do?
A joint project between the UAE and the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of California, Berkeley and Arizona State University, Hope is essentially a highly advanced weather satellite, according to Space.com.
It is designed to create a long-term picture of the Martian climate across the planet, showing how the planet’s weather patterns change over days and years. Scientists hope to use their data to solve the mechanisms that leaked oxygen and hydrogen out of the Martian atmosphere for eons.
Related: 6 reasons astrobiologists maintain life expectancy on Mars
Those processes left the planet dry, cold and sterile. But the search for life on Mars is based on the assumption, backed by evidence from the planet’s surface, that billions of years ago it was warmer and wetter with enough oxygen. The researchers hope that understanding how the atmosphere is changing today could help develop the image of an older Mars where life might have developed.
A scientific boost for the gulf nation
More immediately, the objective of the space program is to strengthen the UAE’s position in the global scientific community and establish serious research institutions in the country, the UAE said.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center lists the objectives of the Hope mission in its websiteeven to “encourage and inspire young generations to succeed in STEM projects“and” promote a culture of research and passion for exploration and innovation. “
So far, the UAE’s efforts appear to be paying off.
“With no prior experience in national space exploration, planetary science capabilities or adequate infrastructure, the nation managed to assemble a 100% local Emirati delivery team that averaged less than 35 years,” Ine Steenmans and Neil Morisetti, researchers at University College London. wrote for The conversation. “And by setting a deadline of six years instead of ten, as most comparable missions do, he managed to launch on time and on budget.”
Steenmans, Morisetti and their colleagues published a brilliant overview of the mission, saying Hope’s effort had sparked a small scientific explosion for the UAE, with more than 50 peer-reviewed space science articles leaving the country in the past six years.
In the process, the UAE also developed the knowledge and manufacturing infrastructure for other similar projects in the future, the researchers wrote in their disclosure. More students in the UAE have enrolled in graduate science programs; More funds are available for scientists in the country; and the investigation seems like a more attractive career than before this mission took off, they said.
“Therefore, one of the lessons is that when integrated into a long-term national strategic vision, space exploration can generate significant benefits near home in the short term,” they wrote. “While space may seem primarily about science missions, when designed in this way, they may be missions for national development.”
The UAE is not alone among the post-Cold War powers that use space exploration to mark their status and power, and to elevate national ambitions. China, despite being excluded from collaboration with NASA, has built its own space stations and landed rovers on the moon. Israel’s Beresheet lander failed spectacularly when hit the moon in 2019 (although the accident sent thousands of dry tardigrades on the lunar surface) And India has launched several satellite probes, including the Mars Orbiter Mission that has been circling the red planet since 2014.
Like Forbes reported In 2018, only about 40% of all Mars missions in history have been successful. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether Hope, arriving in February 2021, will be seen as a total success for the UAE’s scientific ambitions.
Originally published in Live Science.
