Three countries make their way to Mars, the United States, China, and the United Arab Emirates, to explore the Red Planet in the hope of finding evidence of life before on its back, and collecting rock samples to examine them on Earth. Each of these tasks is avant-garde in itself. As China aims to add new successes to its previous space successes, by launching one of its vehicles to Mars for the first time. The UAE launched the "Probe of Hope", which is considered the first space mission by an Arab country, and the first experiment of the nascent Emirati Space Agency. The United States, represented by its agency, will send its fifth spacecraft to Mars.
Hope enters the Emirates
Ambitious dreams The United Arab Emirates has been continuing to launch a journey towards Mars called the "Probe of Hope", which is the first Arab and Islamic probe in history that transcends the Earth's orbit, which was actually launched from the space center in Tanegashima, Japan, on the 20th of this July.
The Emirates mission to Mars does not only mean the launch of the first Arab country an exploratory journey into space, but also means setting the first global weather map for Mars. Although previous probes managed to draw a picture of the atmosphere of Mars from orbits that allowed it to survey every part of the planet at limited times of the day, the huge elliptical orbit that the "Probe of Hope" would take would allow it to wipe out large parts of Mars in conditions Day and night, covering almost the entire planet every 55 hours after completing its cycle. "We can cover all areas of Mars, all the time, throughout the day, and during an entire Martian year," said Sarah Minister of Technology, State Minister for Advanced Technology, Leader of the Scientific Team of the Emirates Project for Exploring Mars, "Probe of Hope".
The probe camera with visible light and infrared spectrum device can study Mars clouds and dust storms in the lower atmosphere. The ultraviolet probe spectrum device also detects gases in the upper atmosphere. "This first mission of the Emirates Mars mission will provide a comprehensive picture of the dynamics of the atmosphere of this planet," said Hessa al-Matroushi, a member of the science team for the Emirates Mars Mission.
During his two-year mission, the "Probe of Hope" will track daily weather changes and changing seasons. As well as helping to prepare for future human tasks, and helps to understand the conditions that made hydrogen and oxygen leak into space from the atmosphere of Mars, and this can help scientists understand the climate of Mars and the causes of its thickening atmosphere.
The team is working with international collaborators to produce scientific results, and data will be available to mankind without banning anyone, says Al-Amiri, and chief scientist at the NASA’s Mars Program, Richard Zorick, says: “The Emiratis are keen not to make this work just a technological demonstration, but rather Contribution to scientific knowledge.
The spacecraft is a major jump in the capabilities of the United Arab Emirates, which has hired engineers who worked on previous NASA missions, in particular at the University of Colorado Boulder. Zurek says, the partnership has an explicit goal of imparting knowledge to the working group at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center, with whom engineers worked with every component of the mission. "The truth is that we are a young country, and we could not do anything without international partners," said Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises, Chairman of the Emirates Space Agency, Dr. Ahmed Belhoul Al Falasi.
Unusually, the idea for the project did not come from the scholars but from the government itself, which set December 2, 2021 as an untenable timing for the probe to reach its destination, which coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the union. Carrying out such a bold mission is not only to inspire young people in the region, but it also marks the beginning of the UAE's move towards a knowledge-based economy, says Imran Sharaf, director of the Emirates Exploration Project, Imran Sharaf.
This mission already has an impact on universities that offer five new university courses in pure science, and inflame the enthusiasm of Emirati children.
In many ways, Al-Amiri says, “Even if we assume that the probe exploded from the launch pad, the mission will have achieved success." But it corrects, "my heart almost stopped thinking about this."
The mission of the United Arab Emirates around Mars will start in an elliptical orbit that ranges from about 22,000 to 44,000 km. The probe has two spectrophotometers and a high-resolution imaging device to capture information about how the atmosphere has changed throughout the day and year.
The atmosphere of Mars was thick at one time, and is characterized by the presence of a large amount of water on its surface, but many of the atmosphere's gases leaked over billions of years. The "Hope Probe" will reveal how the oxygen, hydrogen and ions atoms of the planet's atmosphere leak out into space.
Landing sites
The American vehicle, called "Preservance", will land in a crater called "Gizero", near a delta formed by an ancient river - a major site where a sign of past life, if present, could be found. China is studying several landing sites for its mission, dubbed "Tianwin-1".
«Preservance»
The United States vehicle is the size of a vehicle equipped with seven equipment. Its main task is to collect rock samples that are to be transported to Earth for a future mission. She will also study the planet’s weather and geology, search for water, produce carbon dioxide, record sounds if there are sounds, and test a solar powered helicopter.
Find evidence of life
Preservance has several devices that help it search for clues to life. One of these devices is called "Sherlock" that sheds ultraviolet laser light on the rocks, records the spectral luminescence and their reflections, and in this way can recognize the signal of organic molecules and minerals that have formed in aquatic environments.
Automated geologist
Preservance carries 43 tubes to store the rock samples that will be collected and stored by a chain of three robots. These samples, when they reach Earth, may contain the first clue as to whether life exists on Mars.
"Tianwin-1"
China calls its space mission "Tianwin-1", and the term "Tianwin" means in the Chinese language "the search for heavenly truth", and the mission is considered the deepest Chinese incursion into space. When the mission reaches its goal in February next year, it will conduct a comprehensive survey of the planet's atmosphere and interior structures.
The pioneering mission to Mars consists of a probe, vehicle and airstrip, and it will be the first country to achieve the three goals. Both the probe and the vehicle have radars to detect water and ice on the surface and inside the planet. It also studies the geology and weather of the planet.
A previous attempt by China to send a space probe to Mars, on a Russian spacecraft, ended in 2011 - with the disappearance of the probe in space. But after this loss, China achieved a series of victories in space. In 2013, it became the third country to land its spacecraft on the moon. Last year, a Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon - the first country to land its spacecraft at that location. In May, China successfully tested the launch of a spacecraft that would carry the crew to the country's new space station, which is expected to finish working in 2022. However, the Mars project is different from previous space missions to China.
The journey to Mars is 1,000 times longer than the trip to the moon, and its atmosphere is filled with thick rocks, which makes the effort more dangerous. The Chinese government is keeping a tight line on the mission: most of the public information came from published articles and government media reports, which omitted key details about its budget, exact launch date and where the probe will land on this planet. Scholars participating in the mission rejected requests for interviews even after the launch. But the space physicist and general manager of the National Center for Space Science in Beijing, Wang Qi, said in an email that the mission is moving forward as planned.
Once the compact spacecraft reaches Mars, the hexagon probe will launch the spacecraft - protected by a spherical cone - into the atmosphere of Mars. The Chinese team identified two possible areas for landing in the Utopia planetia plains, according to a lecture given by an expert at the National Astronomical Observatory in Beijing, Wei Yan, who spoke at the European Planetary Science Conference in Geneva, Switzerland in September. The probe will launch by parachute, then hover over the planet, and settle on four legs. The spacecraft, which weighs about 200 kilograms, will extend its solar panels, to begin to explore its surroundings independently for the rest of its specified life by about 90 days on Mars, where the day takes 24 hours and 37 minutes.
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Visitors from many countries to the Red Planet
Never before had such a diverse set of equipment and spacecraft reached another planet, bounded by all these vast aspirations. The equipment, vehicles and orbits of the missions of China, the United States and the United Arab Emirates consist of two orbits, two roving vehicles, a fixed surface laboratory and a helicopter. These equipment and vehicles aim to study everything from the water deposits of Mars to the upper part of the atmosphere, with a particular focus on researching the possibility of life.
The "Probe of Hope" is studying the changing atmosphere of Mars
The mission of the United Arab Emirates around Mars will start in an elliptical orbit that ranges from about 22,000 to 44,000 km. The probe has two spectrophotometers and a high-resolution imaging device to capture information about how the atmosphere has changed throughout the day and year.
The atmosphere of Mars was thick at one time, and is characterized by the presence of a large amount of water on its surface, but many of the atmosphere's gases leaked over billions of years. The "Hope Probe" will reveal how the oxygen, hydrogen and ions atoms of the planet's atmosphere leak out into space.
The Presencevance carries 43 tubes to store the rock samples that will be collected and stored by a series of three robots. These samples, when they reach Earth, may contain the first clue as to whether life exists on Mars.
The journey to Mars is 1,000 times longer than the trip to the moon, and its atmosphere is filled with thick rocks, which makes the effort more dangerous.
The Chinese “Tianwin-1” spacecraft will be the first mission to successfully study the red planet, with a spacecraft, probe and landing strip.