The Emirates Project to Explore Mars "Probe of Hope" was successfully launched on its historic journey to the Red Planet, underlining a new achievement for the UAE and the Arabs. Today, Zayed's "ambition" embraces Mars by seeing the rational leadership of the country and the determination and will of young people who do not know the impossible.
This achievement comes after 6 years of hard work that started on July 16, 2014 when His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State "may God protect him" and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai announced the largest strategic initiative A scientific patriotism of its kind, for the Emirates to be the first Arab country to send a space mission to the Red Planet, thereby contributing to enriching the global scientific community and serving humanity, and for the Emirates to be one of only nine countries that aspire to explore this planet.
The UAE’s interest in space science and astronomy was not the result of the moment but rather dates back to the seventies of the last century when the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan “may God rest his soul” met with the NASA team responsible for the Apollo 17 trip as this meeting was a catalyst to direct the UAE’s interest in space Almost 5 decades ago, the birth of a national space sector was born with the founding of Thuraya Communications in April 1997, the Emirates Foundation for Advanced Science and Technology "IAST" in February 2006 and Yahia Satellite Communications Company "Yahsat" in 2007, the UAE Space Agency in 2014 and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Center For space in February 2015.
And with the launch of the "Probe of Hope" on its historical journey, up to Mars in the first quarter of the year 2021, in conjunction with the celebrations of the UAE 50th anniversary of the Union’s journey, it is expected that it will take seven months, during which the probe will travel 493 million km .. Behind this project, about 200 engineers And an engineer from the sons and daughters of the Emirates who taught in teams working for nearly 6 years to achieve this historic achievement for their homeland and their Arab and Islamic nation.
Over the course of its career, the project has achieved many scientific achievements, including the completion of 200 new scientific technological designs and the manufacture of 66 pieces of probe components in the UAE.
The story of transporting the probe to the space launch station in Japan was an inspiring experience in itself, especially as it took place under difficult and unprecedented conditions in the world due to the pandemic of Corona "Covid-19" and the consequent technical and logistical challenges in the forefront of which disrupt air navigation and transportation in various around the world.
Nevertheless, the Hope Probe team succeeded in completing the transfer process according to the scheduled schedule in a journey that lasted more than 83 hours by land, air and sea, and went through three main stages during which careful measures and logistical measures were taken, to ensure that the probe was delivered to its final destination before launch in an ideal situation.
The probe will remain in the orbit of the Red Planet for a full Martian year, equivalent to 687 days, during which it collects important scientific data, as the probe will provide the first comprehensive picture of the climatic conditions on Mars throughout the year and monitor the weather change during the periods of the day and between seasons of the year, which constitutes a scientific precedent of Its type, as most of the previous missions of exploring Mars focused on studying the terrain of the Red Planet and its geological nature, not climate.
This would provide scientists with new information about the Martian climate, including the famous Martian dust storms blowing on the Red Planet in the form of huge piles of red dust, thus completely submerging the planet, compared to the dust storms on the planet that are brief and occur in specific locations.
Scientific mission of the probe also includes investigating the causes of the vanishing of the upper layer of the Martian atmosphere, investigating the relationship between the lower and upper atmosphere of the planet, and knowing the reasons for the erosion of the Martian surface. The relationship between the current Mars climate and what it was in the past time before its atmospheric atmosphere will fade It is important to know the reasons for this erosion in order to compare this with the climatic challenges facing humanity on the planet.
The "Probe of Hope" will collect this huge data on Mars and deposit it in a scientific data center in the UAE through a number of receiving ground stations spread around the world .. And the scientific team of the project in the Emirates will index and analyze these data to be shared openly and free with the scientific community in A way to serve human knowledge.
This tremendous scientific wealth provided by studying the climate of Mars, its stratosphere and the historical conditions that the planet has gone through will constitute a qualitative addition to human knowledge that helps scientists and researchers to study the possibility of building human settlements on Mars in the foreseeable future and to explore the possibility of life in other planets .. Add to that Understanding the geological and climatic changes that Mars and other planets have gone through will help us to understand the developments and changes that the Earth has gone through and therefore we will be better able to deal with the challenges facing humanity on Earth and find solutions to them.