The Emirates project aims to explore Mars, the "probe of hope", which remains only three days away (July 15), to achieve a set of goals on the surface of the red planet.
The probe of hope will provide a comprehensive study on the climate of Mars and its different layers of atmosphere when it reaches the red planet. This study will give scientists a deeper insight into the past and future of the planet as well as the possibilities of finding life on Mars and other planets.
The Emirates project team to explore Mars - the probe of hope will work in cooperation and coordination with the global scientific community interested in Mars to try to find answers to questions that were not addressed by any of the previous space missions, and study the causes of the erosion of the atmosphere on the surface of Mars by tracking the behavior and path of exit of hydrogen and oxygen atoms , Which form the basic units for forming water molecules.
The team will also work to investigate the relationship between the lower and upper atmosphere layers on Mars, in addition to providing the first image of its kind in the world about how the atmosphere of Mars changed throughout the day between seasons of the year, as well as observing weather phenomena on the surface of Mars, such as dust storms, Temperature changes, as well as the diversity of climate patterns according to its varied topography, to reveal the underlying causes of the erosion of the Martian surface, and to search for any relationships between current weather and ancient weather conditions for the Red Planet.
The probe is scheduled to fly to Mars in mid-July 2020 from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan using a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI H2A) missile, and it is planned to reach the red planet’s orbit in the first quarter (February) of 2021.
The launch missile will launch at a speed of 34,000 km per hour into the orbit of the parking lot, and then launch towards Mars, the probe will travel 493,000,000 km to reach the orbit of Mars, the journey will take 7 months, and the tracking devices will help to visualize the position of the spacecraft to ensure that it follows the required path, and reaches The duration of the probe's delay in its orbit around Mars is 13 to 26 minutes, and the probe will use the Deep Space Network for communications.
The probe completes its orbit around Mars every 55 hours, and the scientific orbit of the Hope probe is 20,000-43,000 km. The duration of the control room in the UAE is limited to the probe around the red planet between 6-8 hours, twice a week.
The size of the probe and its total weight is similar to the size and weight of a small car, as it weighs approximately 1,350 kg.
The Minister of State for Advanced Sciences, the leader of the scientific team, the Emirates Project for Exploring Mars “Probe of Hope” at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center, Sarah Al-Amiri, confirmed that the members of the Hope Probe team (in the control room) work more than 12 hours a day, during the last days before The launch of the probe in its expedition to Mars, according to the task of each person, a chapter on that the project manager operates in excess of 18 per day, because the control of the probe will be around the clock, and therefore the last 17 days (two and a half weeks) The team continues to work around the clock Six days a week.
And she revealed during a virtual press conference, finally, that the scientific mission of the probe will begin at the end of April 2021, adding: "It must be sure of the validity and integrity of the data sent by the probe, which is downloaded by the scientific team, before providing the concerned authorities, and then The first batch of data will be released in September 2021 to the scientific community. "