Dubai (AFP)

The first Arab mission to Mars, planned for mid-July to study the atmosphere of the red planet, is intended to inspire young people in the region and pave the way for scientific progress, according to Emirati officials.

After sending an astronaut into space last year, the United Arab Emirates will launch the first Arab probe on July 15 to the planet Mars from Japan.

Preparations are currently in their final phase for putting into orbit an unmanned probe, called "Amal" (hope, in Arabic), around the red planet.

The "Emirates Mars Mission" is part of the projects launched by this rich Gulf country to assert itself as a scientific and spatial power.

In the long term, the Emirates plan to build a "City of Sciences" to reproduce the environmental conditions of Mars for the establishment of a human colony on the red planet by 2117.

In addition to these ambitious scientific objectives, the mission to Mars is intended to recall the golden age of the region in the cultural and scientific fields, said Tuesday the director of the project, Omrane Charaf.

"The Emirates want to send a strong message to Arab youth and remind them of the past, that we were once generators of knowledge," he said.

"People from different backgrounds and religions lived together and shared a similar identity," he said of an Arab world, today divided and shaken by conflict.

- Niche narrow -

"Put your differences aside, focus on building the region, you have a rich history and you can do much more."

For Sarah al-Amiri, deputy head of the project, "this is not a short-term mission, but rather an ongoing mission that will give rise to important scientific discoveries."

The probe will provide a global picture of the weather dynamics in the atmosphere of Mars using three scientific instruments.

The first is an infrared spectrometer to measure the lower atmosphere of the red planet and analyze the temperature structure.

The second is a high definition imager that will provide information on ozone, and the third is an ultraviolet spectrometer to measure oxygen and hydrogen levels from a distance of up to 43,000 km from the surface.

The three tools will allow researchers to observe the red planet "at all times of the day and to observe the entire planet at all these different times," said Amiri at AFP.

"We want to better understand the causes of the loss of atmosphere and whether the weather system on Mars affects the loss of hydrogen and oxygen," she adds, referring to the two components of water.

Charaf said fuel loading is scheduled to start next week.

The probe is to be launched from the Tanegashima space center in Japan and return to Earth in February 2021.

"If we miss this launch opportunity, between mid-July and early August, we will have to wait two years to see another opportunity," he said.

But they have high hopes that the probe will be launched on schedule, without being disturbed by the coronavirus pandemic, for which the team had to quarantine in Japan as a precaution.

© 2020 AFP