By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The UAE’s Hope spacecraft, which launched in July 2020, has arrived on Mars at around 10:30 am on Tuesday.
Sarah Al Amiri, chair of the UAE Space Agency and minister of state for advanced technology called this complex maneuver the “most challenging phase” of the mission.
Al Amiri said in a webinar hosted by the Planetary Society and the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council, that “We understood from the first day of even working on this mission that the statistics are only half of those missions succeed in entering orbit around Mars.”
The UAE partnered with the University of Colorado at Boulder to build the spacecraft, which is designed to study the atmosphere of Mars.
Naturenews gathered that the spacecraft is more than $200-million and if the mission is successful, it could serve as an important model for other small countries.
Three spacecraft carrying the ambitions and anxieties of three different countries’ space agencies are set to arrive at Mars this month, beginning with UAE’s Spacecraft.
An orbiter and rover launched by China’s space agency are expected to arrive at the red planet on Wednesday and NASA’s Perseverance rover, a much-anticipated follow-up act to the Curiosity rover, will attempt to touch down on the Martian surface on Feb. 18.
Also, few details about the Tianwen-1 mission have been made public, but the orbiter and rover are expected to reach Mars on Wednesday.
Tianwen-1 orbiter is designed to circle the red planet and map the Martian surface using a radar instrument that can measure the properties of soil and water-ice. China will then attempt to land the rover on Mars sometime in May.
“The United States started Mars exploration by doing several Mars flybys, then orbiters, then static landers, and then rovers,” Zubrin said. “China is doing all of this at once in their first mission. It’s a very bold thing. They are bursting onto the stage of Mars exploration.”
According to NASA, the Perseverance mission could lay the foundation for future human exploration of Mars.
In addition to searching for signs of ancient life, the $3 billion Perseverance mission will test out innovative technologies on the red planet. The rover is carrying a small helicopter that is designed to perform experimental test flights in Mars’ thin atmosphere.
If successful, it would mark a key milestone in powered flight and could usher in a new era of red planet exploration.
