UAE’s historic Hope Mars
Context:
- 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.
1.png)
