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The UAE’s first mission to March will reach the Red Planet on February 9, 2021, Emirates government officials announced on Sunday (November 8).
The mission Orbiter of Hope is expected to arrive on March the same year as the 50th anniversary of the country’s formation, officials from the United Arab Emirates said in a statement just after Hope successfully completed her third course correction.
The Hope mission, added Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed Rashid Al Maktoum in the same statement, “marks the start of another 50 years which will bring major achievements based in the fields of science, knowledge and innovation.” . The UAE is using the mission as an incentive to encourage scientific innovation among researchers and educators nationwide, the statement said.
Related: Photos of the UAE’s Hope Mission to Mars
If Hope manages to reach Mars safely, the UAE will be the fifth entity to successfully send a mission to the Red Planet after NASA, the Soviet Union, the European Space Agency and the Indian Space Research Organization. So far the spacecraft has come 60% of the way to Mars since its launch on July 20. It is expected to perform a fourth, smaller course correction maneuver on December 29.
As Hope heads to Mars, her ground crew in Dubai check the spacecraft’s health two or three times a week. The last major phase will be the insertion of the mission’s orbit, which will force the probe to slow down and enter orbit around Mars without real-time assistance from Earth. (Signals from Earth to Mars typically take 13 to 26 minutes one way.)
Hope gathers scientific observations on the way to the red planet. In the coming months, he will observe hydrogen near Mars using a spectrometer and examine interplanetary dust using star trackers, Emirate Mars Mission project director Omran Sharaf said in the same statement.
Hope’s hydrogen observations will be calibrated with a spectrometer on Japan and ESA BepiColombo spaceship, which just swung by Venus a few weeks ago on his seven-year trip to Mercury. The data collected by Hope and BepiColombo should provide more information on how hydrogen is distributed between planets, the UAE government said.
The scientific phase of the mission to Mars will begin approximately 75 days after orbit insertion. Hope’s orbit will be approximately 620 to 30,500 miles (1,000 to 49,000 km) above the Martian surface.
The spacecraft is expected to stay in orbit and collect data for at least a full Martian year, or 687 Earth days. Some of Hope’s scientific contributions will include the first planet-wide examination of Martian atmospheric dynamics and weather, according to the UAE.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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