The Emirates Mars Mission is ready to begin gathering data from the Martian planet after successfully completing practice exercises and ensuring instruments aboard are functioning properly.
The Hope Probe will study the Martian atmosphere, the relationship between the upper layer and lower layer and, for the first time, scientists globally will have full access to a holistic view of the Mars atmosphere at different times of the day, through different seasons.
“Following a successful cruise to Mars, a near-perfect Mars Orbit Insertion manoeuvre and our transition from Hope’s capture orbit to our science orbit, we have completed our commissioning, calibration and testing phase. I am delighted to be able to report that the Mars Hope probe is perfectly positioned to commence its two-years science mission,” said Omran Sharaf, Project Director of EMM.
The Hope Probe reached the Mars orbit in February after 204 days of travel to the red planet. In April, the probe’s three instruments – the Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS), the Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI) and the Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS) – were activated and have now been tested.
A statement from the mission said the “instruments and spacecraft are performing beyond expectations.”
“Hope is following its planned 20,000 – 43,000 kilometre elliptical science orbit, with an inclination to Mars of 25 degrees. The probe will complete one orbit of the planet every 55 hours and will capture a full planetary data sample every nine days,” the statement said.
The EMM spacecraft is the only mission at Mars capable of making this type of image, thanks to its high-altitude orbit (20,000 km x 43,000 km).#HopeProbe
— Hope Mars Mission (@HopeMarsMission) May 23, 2021
Announced in July 2014 by the UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, the Emirates Mars Mission has been developed by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), in conjunction with its knowledge transfer partners and funded by the UAE Space Agency.
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