The United Arab Emirates (UAE) made history on Tuesday as the first Arab country to reach Mars.
The UAE mission to Mars "Hope Probe" reached the red planet at 7:42 pm., UAE time. The ground control team at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai erupted to cheers after the mission sent its response signal back to Earth after just half an hour.
“After 204 days and more than 480 million kilometers, the Hope Probe is now in the Mars Orbit,” the official Hope Mars Mission wrote in a tweet.
Since more than half of all Mars missions actually failed, experts have estimated the chance of successfully entering Mars orbit at about 50% success chance.
The Hope Probe had to drastically slow down from its 100,000 kilometers per hour to 18,000 kilometers per hour by firing its six thrusts for exactly 27 minutes, using up half of its fuel, and enabling it to be caught by Mars’ gravity.
In the meantime, there was a delay in signal of about 11 minutes to return to Earth as the scientists and engineers involved in the project waited in tense anticipation.
The Hope Probe is a $200 million project, which was launched on July 20 from Japan's Tanegashima station, and will now spend one Martian year, the equivalent of 687 days on Earth, to study and collect data on Mars' atmosphere.
https://twitter.com/HopeMarsMission/status/1359140926573142017?s=20
That time will enable it to create the first full map of the Martian atmosphere, with the help of three highly specialized instruments developed by the Emirati team: a highly sophisticated camera to photograph Mars and study its lower atmosphere, an ultraviolet spectrometer that will detect the planet’s levels of carbon monoxide and oxygen, and an infrared spectrometer that will measure Martian dust, ice clouds and water.
The mission will be able to create the first complete map of Mars' atmosphere, with the help of a highly sophisticated camera, an ultraviolet spectrometer that will detect carbon monoxide and oxygen levels on the planet, and an infrared spectrometer, which will measure mars dust, ice clouds and water.
https://twitter.com/HopeMarsMission/status/1359193991019962368?s=20
https://twitter.com/HopeMarsMission/status/1359157892784480261?s=20
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