The Hope (Al Amal) probe will circle Mars in a 55-day orbit, analyzing its atmosphere.
MBRSC
The United Arab Emirates embarks on its first trip to Mars. The nation has had to wait as weather conditions forced two delays, but on Sunday the UAE Space Agency and the Mohammed bin Rashin Space Center will send the “Al Amal” or “Hope” probe to the red planet. GO command has been sent, so it is happening – And you can watch it live below.
Hope was scheduled to launch Friday, July 17, from Tanegashima, a Japanese island in the northern Pacific Ocean, inside a Mitsubishi H-IIA booster. Japan has seen heavy rains and flooding in the past week forcing the double lag, but conditions appear to be improving. The mission team said Friday that the exact launch time is now scheduled for July 19 at 2:58 pm PT, depending on the weather.
How to see the launch of the Hope probe to Mars
The probe will be launched in a Mitsubishi H-IIA amplifier. The rocket is not as famous as the likes of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rocketsBut it has a great launch history, with over 40 successful launches to its credit, primarily from Japanese satellite systems.
Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center will broadcast the launch live from Japan, which you can see through this link. You can also watch on YouTube below and set a reminder, if necessary.
Transmission will continue until around 4 pm PT when the Hope probe is configured to separate from the reinforcement.
Additional streams are available on the Hope Mars mission YouTube channel.
Great hope
Hope is the first interplanetary mission led by a Muslim-majority Arab country and, if successful, will add another nation to the list of Martian explorers.
“The intention was not to put a message or statement to the world,” Sarah Al Amiri, president of the UAE Council of Scientists and deputy project manager for the Emirates Mars Mission, told CNET in March. “It was, for us, more of an internal reinforcement than the UAE is all about.” The historic launch is slated to air live worldwide.
The satellite will study the connections between the upper and lower atmospheres of Mars and examine what causes the loss of hydrogen and oxygen in space. It will collect data for two years after reaching its orbit around Mars in February 2021. There is an option to extend the mission until 2025.
Aboard Hope are three instruments that will allow the probe to study the Martian atmosphere more intensively. There is a high-resolution camera known as the Emirates eXploration Imager, a UV camera known as the Emirates Mars ultraviolet spectrometer, and an infrared scanner called the Emirates Mars infrared spectrometer.
