Dubai: The Emirates Mars Mission will revive the Arab world’s historic role in contributing to human knowledge with the first Arab Mars probe to be launched in 2020.
His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Wednesday announced that the first Arab probe called Hope, or Al Amal in Arabic, will create mankind’s first integrated model of the Red Planet’s atmosphere.
“The Emirates Mars Mission will be a great contribution to human knowledge, a milestone for Arab civilisation, and a real investment for future generations,” Shaikh Mohammad said, addressing top UAE officials and high-level delegations.
“The first message is for the world: that Arab civilisation once played a great role in contributing to human knowledge, and will play that role again.”
Shaikh Mohammad said the probe represents hope for millions of young Arabs looking for a better future. “There is no future, no achievement, no life without hope.”
The unmanned probe will be launched in July 2020 and is expected to enter Mars’ orbit within approximately 200 days or during the first quarter of 2021, coinciding with the 50th founding anniversary of the UAE.
Hope, a hexagonal-section or six-sided spacecraft, will orbit or hover around the Red Planet for roughly two years to study Mars’ dynamic changes in the Martian atmosphere throughout its daily and seasonal cycles.
Engineers working on the project said the mission will enable scientists to observe weather phenomena such as Martian clouds and dust storms, as well as changes in temperature, dust, ice and gases, including water vapour, throughout the layers of the atmosphere.
This will enable them to build the first truly holistic model of the Martian atmosphere to help the global Mars science community fully understand the Red Planet.
Hope is designed to send back more than 1,000 GB of data back to earth to enable scientists to learn for the first time how the atmosphere interacts with topography, from the highest volcano peaks to the vast deserts and the deepest canyons.
All data culled from the planet will be shared freely with more than 200 institutions worldwide for the benefit of thousands of space specialists.
The mission, led by an all-Emirati team of 75 engineers and scientists, is designed to complement the decades-long research of other missions around the world and fill important gaps in human knowledge. Mars missions started in 1960 but the first successful mission was by the US in 1964.
The number of Emirati engineers and researchers involved is expected grow to more than 150 over the next five years.
“The Emirates Mars Mission is a strategic investment in our human capital and an investment in our human capital is a winning investment. Future generations will reap the rewards of our investment in science and knowledge,” Shaikh Mohammad said.
Shaikh Mohammad also pointed out that in a small tent 43 years ago, the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Shaikh Rashid Bin Saaed Al Maktoum worked day and night to build the Emirates we know today, and under the leadership of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, we have a team capable of competing with major nations in accessing Mars.
Ebrahim Al Qasimi, Deputy Project Manager, Strategic Planning at Emirates Mars Mission, said the mission mirrors the significant role of the Arab world in the past which will be made possible again over the next five years.
“Look back in history. The Middle East was once a powerhouse for innovation and science. Muslim civilisations were once pioneers in mathematics and astronomy. This will be the first ever Arab Islamic mission to another planet,” Al Qasimi said.
The Mission Control will be in the UAE but the geo-location of the launch pad has not been announced as yet.
